Chapter 45 - Makai - Tournament Part 2

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Makai

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After the team came down for breakfast and we had finished eating we just had to wait for our coach. He didn't seem to be as much of a morning person as the rest of the team. The large group of us were talking and lounging around the lobby and outside the hotel by the time he came down to fill a large thermos with coffee and grab a handful of pastries for his breakfast. Once he was done we headed out immediately.

"How do you all have so much energy in the morning?" He grumbled. I just wanted to laugh. He was a teacher and was usually at the school long before us, and he was captain of the swim team. But then again, I guess we never saw him before he drank his coffee. This was not something we were all supposed to see.

'Sorry Coach, you can do this.' I offered him some silent support in my head.

With the combined boys and girls swims teams filing onto the buses already the coach didn't have much to do, he just sat in his seat at the front and started nursing his coffee with a frown. I could imagine that he didn't sleep well last night.

I went to the same seat I had been in yesterday. It looked like everyone had gone to the exact same seats that they were in before. This meant that I was once again sitting next to Ocean. I didn't make a big deal about it. Ocean did sit with me at breakfast though he hadn't said a word until his friends had come down and joined us.

It was progress though and progress was good. I would take silent meals over angry avoidance any day. Baby steps. I would take all the baby steps I needed to. It was hard as hell but I would do it. Until I lost my patience and self control that is. 

Before long the two buses pulled up outside of a massive sports complex. I could see why this tournament was held here. I had obviously never been here before so it was all new to me but I could see that a lot of the others hadn't been to this place before either.

Most of the people on our team were looking around and staring at the sheer size of the place. There were dozens if not hundreds of buses and what felt like thousands of people all over the place. When we got inside I saw that there were different sections for different sports. This place could host tournaments for footballs, soccer or lacrosse, baseball or softball, volleyball, swimming or diving, tennis, basketball, the possibilities were literally endless.

When we got to the swimming section of the complex I saw that there were four olympic sized swimming pools. This would allow forty people to compete in a heat at the same time. Just how massive was this tournament going to be?

The team relays were first. We were put into our groups of four. All of us were divided up, there was no getting out of it. I was grouped with Ryan, Ben, and Ocean. That made me happy. I would do anything to be on Ocean's team every time. 

Our school had twenty four boys and twenty four girls, equal split for the teams. That meant that we had twelve total entries in the relay, six each going into the girls group and boys groups. We were doing three different types of team relays in this tournament. The girls were up first with their 4 x 100 m freestyle relay. There were only a total of thirty-six total female teams in the entire tournament so they were able to do all of their relays at once with one female swimmer going right after the other until all four members of the team had finished their part of the race. That match up didn't take very long.

Following that relay it was time for the guys to go. There were a lot more of us than there were for the girls. A total of ninety-two teams for the guys compared to the thirty-six teams for the girls. We had to go in three different sets for the relays before we were all finished.

I was trying to keep track of how well our school was doing. Our school had reached fifth and third places for the first relay with the girls but those were the closest we had gotten. Ocean and I were racing in the third set but as of right now the team with Justin from our school was in third place. He was currently walking around all smug because he was in a ranked position.

Finally it was time for my group of four to compete in our heat. Ryan started out strong and got us an early lead. Ben didn't do anything overly great, he didn't increase our lead but he didn't decrease it either. Next it was my turn to go. I dove in as hard as I could and swam as hard as I could. I could tell I was pulling ahead of the others and getting us closer to our victory. Finally I reached the edge of the pool and Ocean dove into the water. I turned around as quickly as I could and watched him as he swam across. He was swimming so majestically. He was so beautiful and graceful as he moved through the water.

When Ocean got to the edge of the pool and the large display clock that the whole crowd could see finally froze and showed the time that we had achieved I nearly slipped under the water in shock. We had broken the state record. Ryan and Ben had swam pretty good for themselves, and I had done a good job but Ocean had done phenomenally well. I was blown away when I saw his time. He had definitely been training hard for this.

Our whole team erupted into cheers when they saw our time. Well, everyone except for Ocean who was dumbfounded by what he saw and Justin because he was mad that he was unseated from the top three when our team took over first place.

The day continued in this manner. After the first relay we had the 4 x 100 m medley relay and then the 4 x 200 m freestyle relay. These all took a long time. It was a lot and it took a lot out of us but there was a good amount of time to rest in between all of our turns to compete.

This was just the preliminaries though. We were now about to move on to the next set of races. The ninety-two teams of the guys and the thirty-six teams of the girls had been filtered down to just sixteen total. Ten teams for the guys and six for the girls.

The team finals would have to take place tomorrow though. We were going to start with the individual preliminaries now. There were a total of five hundred and twelve swimmers in total. Most of them were for the guys. We had to run each heat several times just so that everyone was able to get their times in. It took four heats for each event on the girls side and ten heats for each of the guys. We were all competing in four individual events each.

This tournament had us doing more events than schools allowed but it wasn't a school event, it was a private tournament that we were invited to. Apparently, that was how they were getting around the limitations on how many we were supposed to be competing in for a single day.

By the time that this first day was over we had been narrowed down to the final teams and a group of semi finalists for the individual teams. Our team was of course in the finals along with another guys team from our school and both Ocean and I were in the semi finals as well. Justin and Ryan had made it to the semi finals as did a handful of the others but Ben did not. Also, Justin's team did not make it to the finals for tomorrow which he didn't think was fair at all.

Of our twenty four girls that were here we had one of the six teams make it to the finals and only one female make it to the semi finals as an individual. It was all pretty exciting but it had been an exhausting and busy day.

It was late by the time that we were leaving and heading back to the hotel. The venue had provided a pretty good lunch but that didn't mean we all weren't starving right now. It was going to be time for dinner when we got back. I didn't even know if I was going to have the energy to eat though, it had been that damn busy.