Page 27 - The Window_ A Foundations' Style Rapier

State Cut
Anna Duffy, Class of 2026

Stroke, stroke, stroke, kick, kick, kick, breathe, stroke, kick, kick, stroke… thought Fiona

as she came up to the flags on her last twenty-five in her five-hundred freestyle. Her
muscles screamed at her to stop, to take a break, but Fiona willfully pushed on and
finished her race to make a state cut record. Together, her teammates and coach
clapped and cheered for her as she shakingly got out of the pool. She walked up to
the bleachers, where her team sat, waiting for her.

Leah sat behind the blocks, mentally and physically getting ready for her race.
Her friend, Ally, was there to help her with her pre-race stretches. Leah stretched her
legs as Ally pulled her arms behind her back to loosen them up. The announcer called

the two-hundred butterfliers to step up onto the blocks. Leah got up on the blocks
and got down into her starting position. Not many swimmers on her team have
enough endurance to handle the duration of the two-hundred butterfly because the
butterfly is a very difficult stroke to perform for an extended amount of laps.
Swimmers… take your mark… Go! Leah launched herself off the blocks and into the

water.
In the boys’ pool, Micheal anxiously watched the clock run as the swimmers in
the event came in on the last leg of the four-hundred Medley Relay. The freestyler from

his team was inches behind the leader of the race, and he seemed to be gaining
distance on him. During the last flip-turn of the race, Micheal’s teammate pulled
ahead and won. He broke the state record and gave the relay team a seat in the
championship meet next week. His coach collected his whole team during a
dive-break and went over the things he had seen in the previous races and what to do

going forward. Micheal listened and started preparing for his next event, which was
the first event after the break. He was fairly upset because his coach had randomly
assigned the events to each swimmer, and Micheal was assigned a four-hundred
freestyle when he really wanted to swim breaststroke. Obviously, he had to comply

with his coach’s assignments, or else he would not be able to swim in the meet at all.
Five minutes till the break ends, and that means I have to swim Micheal thought to
himself…
Coach Timothy Smith, Head Coach of the CherryCreek Sharks, watched his

swimmers congratulate themselves so far as the swim meet came to an end. Despite
the team’s success, he became very upset at every disqualification of a swimmer,
because it made him worry that one of his swimmers could be disqualified from an
important event. His team had made it to the semi-championship meet and his best

swimmers qualified to vie in the competition against other elite swimmers at the
regional championship meet. He was very proud of his whole team, even though only
half of the team qualified for the championship meet; all of them had done very well
at the meet and from his perspective, all of them swam like champions.
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