After another successful season in the Oakland Activities Association, another league championshipand a second-place finish at the OAA meet, the only thing left on deck for members of the Clarkston Wolves girls swimming team was the state finals.
The girls traveled to Oakland University in Rochester to compete in the state preliminaries and finals on Nov. 17-18.
Junior Alyssa Vela returned with two top-ten finishes to her credit, placing sixth in the 50-yard freestyle (24.53) as well as the 100-yard freestyle (53.30), an event she won at the OAA meet weeks prior.
Vela entered both events ranked ninth (50-yard) and eighth (100-yard), and shaved time off both qualifying times.
‘It was really exciting,? Vela said.
‘It’s really motivating and it’s going to make me work harder this year so I can go further next year.
‘The competition was really good, it seemed like all the girls were swimming faster than last year. The environment and everything was really intense,? Vela added.
A credit to her near decade experience in the pool, Vela said she was not nervous on the grand stage.
Vela set personal best times and improved over her performance last year in the finals.
She trimmed two-thirds of a second