Last Time I… Broke a State Record
February 26, 2016
3:28.66. Those numbers might not mean much to a person if they don’t know much about girl’s high school swimming, but those numbers mean something to Lafayette’s team.
It’s not everyday an individual can say they qualified for state in multiple events, placed top ten in everything they swam, and then proceeded to not only break the school record for the 400 free relay, but the state record as well. For Kendall Hansen, senior, that story describes her weekend at the state meet.
Throughout the season, Hansen had worked extremely hard. She showed up to almost every practice, ready to put in work.
“After practice, a few of us would go to the gym a couple days a week. It really helped me gain muscle, and that played a huge part into how I was performing,” Hansen said.
Hansen also changed her meal plan, only eating chicken and rice for certain meals, and sticking to mainly protein when she decided to eat something else.She would tweak the plan depending on the position she was in that day. Without the extra effort, Hansen believes she wouldn’t of continued to improve at the rate she did.
“We went into state wanting to break the school record, but we didn’t get our hopes up. We had been dropping time all season, but I wasn’t sure we were going to make the cut, because it’s a fast time. The school record is about the same time as the state record. In prelims, we were a second off. But the next day, we ended up going two seconds under the record,” Hansen said.
For those people who aren’t swimmers, a 400 free relay is composed of four people. Each swimmer swims four laps, and when they have all completed a total 16 laps, the race is over.
“In the ready room before the race, everyone was getting each other pumped up. Every team was getting really excited. It just happen to be our day,” Hansen said.
The Hansen and the other relay swimmers won first place and the record, and the team overall placed 2nd, coming right behind Rock Bridge high school. Lafayette scored 236 points and Rock Bridge ended with 260 points.
“Each of us had to drop at least a little bit less than a second or more than a second, depending on what our times were, and if we wanted to place well we knew we had to win the relay,” Hansen said.
Though the season is over, Hansen is incredibly glad it ended the way it did. After high school, she is going off to college to swim at Indiana State University .
“It feels incredible to come this far. It’s such an awesome way to end my high school swim season career and senior year,” Hansen said.
