On Friday, March 16, the swim team departed Cistercian bound for Conroe, Texas, where they would compete with other schools for the SPC championship. As a member of that team, I can proudly say that we had hoped to resuscitate a dying dynasty that had placed Cistercian in the top 3 for many of the past years. Led by our fearless seahorse of a coach, Jeff Veazey, things looked somewhat promising.

We knew that we would not finish as high as we had in the past because we had lost a great number of good swimmers, but things didn’t look so bad. We were rebuilding, and it still looked totally possible to achieve 7th or 8th place this year. Unfortunately, this would not play out. By the end of the meet, we found ourselves at the bottom of the pit of misery aka dead last.

Despite this, the trip itself was quite memorable. Driven by the honorable Coach Gray in a fashionably out-of-style prison bus, we all underwent a lot of fun team bondage that drew us closer together. We went to Olive Garden for dinner on Friday night, because apparently, Olive Garden carries light meals that won’t fill up a swimmer too much before a meet. Thankfully, Cistercian graciously paid for our food, provided that it was under ten dollars.

The best part of the trip, however, was the trip to the mall after dinner. This trip is the iconic moment for most Cistercian swimmers’ SPC experience, and this year was no different. We used our time thoughtfully as we explored many new and interesting stores, including a Build-a-Bear Workshop. We decided to get a special gift for the great Jeff, and therefore many of us partook in creating a special stuffed animal tailored exactly towards Jeff’s likings. Even though not all of the members were responsible for this act of sincere gratitude, as some swimmers preferred to stay back at their rooms locked in their bathrooms, the gift truly represented our team as a whole and in the words of Jeff, it is something he will never forget.

After that, we all returned to the hotel where two freshmen were given the honorable task of brewing our totally FDA approved energy drink (Jeff calls it Booty Juice, we call it Booty Sweat). We even got an artist among us to decorate the lid of the cooler in which the energy drink lay to better uplift the spirits of the team.

Unfortunately, this meet marked our having to say goodbye to a few people, namely our captain, Jacob Bartz, as well as other seniors Matthew Hess and Evan Bird plus our spiritual leader. He took his mighty position on top of the lockers at North Lake Community College. Bod, as he was called, was recently killed when someone stole him from his rightful place and threw him away, leaving only a candle behind. (Note: this is not a person.)

To cap it all off, we engaged in yet another swimming tradition: Buc-ee’s. Following our meet, on the bus ride back to Cistercian, we all got the opportunity to gorge ourselves on all the junk food we had to abstain from the previous night, and most of us followed suit. On the bus ride, we were able to enjoy the works of great artists such as Dr. Chuck Tingle, making the experience even more surreal. All in all, it was an experience that will never be forgotten, even if it wasn’t really a success.