I love to swim. I have been on swim team for almost seven years now. Swimming puts you under a lot of pressure sometimes, though. Take this instance from last year.

My team was facing the toughest team in our area. They had beaten us every single year for the past twenty years. We really wanted to win.

I could tell by the anxious looks in the judges’ eyes that we were neck-and-neck with the other team. It was all coming down to the final race: the freestyle relay.

The last event was an eighteen-and-under boys relay. The other team’s swimmers were fierce. They even looked stronger than our boys. Both teams hopped up on the blocks.

I stared at our swimmers on the blocks’ faces. They were anxious, every part of them shaking with anxiety.

And then the horn blew, and they took off.

They were neck and neck the whole time, even with their boys being stronger. I could tell that our boys knew that they needed to go fast. Our team depended on this race to win.

And then the two final swimmers came up to the blocks. Our swimmer was shaking all over, staring at the tall, muscular guy next to him. I could tell that there was a lot going through his mind. We depended on him, all of us.

It seemed as though the swimmers in the water touched at the same time. And then the final leg was off.

I think half of us in the crowd lost our voices, including my friends and I. We were screaming at the top of our lungs for our team. It looked like it would be a tie.

And then they touched the wall, and it seemed as though it was.

And then the scores appeared on the scoreboard.

We had lost by less than half a second.

Everyone’s faces fell. We had lost the meet by three points: 456-453.

I felt so bad for the guy who was our last leg. He was just wading in the pool, face underwater, shaking all over. I would have said words of comfort to him, but I had lost my voice cheering.

Winning the championship meet had slipped out of our fingers.

And all I could think about was that poor last leg in the water.

I am almost certain that this was how Casey felt, except I think he was overconfident.