This past weekend, I was able to attend the College Club Swimming National Meet in Mesa, Arizona. This is an annual national meet held for all college club swim teams in the country. There are qualifying times that are necessary to reach in order to qualify for the meet and luckily, 17 fellow members of UF’s club swim team and I were able to qualify in several events.Â
Swimming
Throughout the weekend, I swam in a total of four events: 100-yard butterfly, 100-yard backstroke, 100-yard I.M. and 50-yard butterfly. The meet took place over three days from Friday to Sunday and had two sessions a day. My events were only on Saturday and Sunday and I only competed in prelims for both days. This meet had A, B and C finals for each event, which just means that the top 24 finishers from prelims (the morning session) would swim again in finals.Â
Despite not swimming myself, I came back both days for finals because my teammates were swimming in several events, so we were able to cheer and see the gorgeous Arizona sunset over the pool both nights. Most club meets are incredibly fun to attend, but nationals is a special event every year. Teams from all over the country come, from Florida State to Oregon, and there’s a lot of enjoyable traditions that we carry on like cap trading, competitions for team spirit, CCS Missed Connections (if you know you know) and swim team “socials” on Saturday and Sunday night.Â
Sights of Mesa!
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do much in the great state of Arizona. With prelims and finals taking up the majority of the day and our flights getting in the night before and leaving the night of the last day, we had very limited time to sightsee. However, we took no less than ten Ubers throughout the weekend, getting a great look at the highway’s views, which were unfortunately lackluster.
Arizona is a very beautiful and interesting state in other areas that aren’t the 20-minute radius of the area we existed during our 48 there. I’m aware that Arizona is home to areas like Sedona and some incredible nature scenes, like the Grand Canyon and The Wave. But, most of what we saw was endless desert, sandy buildings and a Dutch Bros every now and then. It got the job done for our limited time, as I’m not sure any of us had the energy to sightsee much while dealing with the jet lag and busy swim schedule. I definitely look forward to traveling back to Arizona when I have more time to actually see what it has to offer.
The one thing I will say I did not like about the state was the dryness. Obviously, it’s a desert and having been to the area before, I should’ve been more prepared for it. Paired with the pool’s chlorine, the dryness was ten times worse than it would’ve originally been. Regardless, the transition from Florida’s 96% humidity to Arizona is jarring.Â
Travel
Being college students, the main priority for travel to this meet was price and time. A lot of us weren’t able to skip classes on Thursday or Friday morning and the cheapest flights are usually at incredibly late or very early times, so we ultimately ended up flying out of Orlando at around 9 p.m. and getting into Phoenix at around 11 p.m. We flew out directly after finals on Sunday and our flight was supposed to board at 11 p.m., but with weather delays, we didn’t end up boarding until 2 a.m., leading to a very late night. After two days of swimming, traveling and a three-hour time difference, we were all delirious and exhausted by the time we landed in Orlando and drove back to Gainesville. Though, it was all worth it. Luckily, nationals next year are in North Carolina, so the travel will not be nearly as heavy.Â
Takeaways
All in all, the meet was a whirlwind, but lots of fun. I wish I could’ve seen more of Arizona, but I’ll definitely be back at some point in the future. I definitely look forward to next year’s nationals!