By Zach Zook
BLOOMINGTON – The Bloomington-Normal YMCA Waves program has been around awhile and has a storied history, but has perhaps never seen two rising stars quite like swimmers Grace Ariola, of Normal Community High School and Melissa Pish of Normal Community West High School.
The duo recently competed in the 2016 Olympic Swim Trials in Omaha, Neb. However, this wasn’t either of the girls first time swimming on the national stage as they competed last fall in the FINA World Junior Championships in Singapore.
“The first national meet that we went to Grace knows that I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh look, that’s a famous person. That’s Missy Franklin,'” said Pish. The two girls explained the previous national competitions went a long way in preparing them for the scene at the trials.
“I was used to seeing a bunch of people around me,” said Ariola. “I was used to seeing Olympians, racing them, and not be overwhelmed by saying, ‘Oh my gosh there’s Missy Franklin.'”
“I didn’t feel a lot of pressure, actually. It was more like, ‘I’ve gotten this far, there’s nothing really I can do about it now. I just have to let my body do what it knows to do,’ and just let it go,” she added.
Despite the growth professionally that both girls had learned through previous national competitions, Ariola still admitted that the experience of going to the trials was unparalleled.
“There were so many famous people that we had heard about our whole lives and we finally get to race them and see our names up there with them,” she said.
Pish also explained how making it to the Olympic Trials was a dream come true.
“It was unreal because you walk in there and see all the people in this huge pool and you’re kind of realizing all the hard work and dedication working toward this, ‘I finally achieved one of my goals,'” she said.
Although the girls didn’t make the Olympic team this year, they hope they can use this experience as a stepping stone to make the team in 2020. Both girls will be juniors at their respective high schools in the fall.
Zach Zook can be reached at [email protected]
