Emma Wakefield is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Dobson High School for AZPreps365.com

Dobson participatted in a meet against its Mesa crosstown rivals Red Mountain, Skyline, and host Mountain View on Thursday. The swimmers' times didn't count those their individual rankings because the meet was fun, competition-friendly among the Mesa crosstown rivals.

The boys and girls swam partner relays, eight-person relays, and even t-shirt relays, as well as individuals events in the 50-yard breaststroke, 50-butterfly, and 50-backstroke.

“The team environment was different,” Dobson sophomore Hawa Savoy said. “We were more supportive of each other because we had to work as a team in order to finish the races.”

The t-shirt relay was the a fan favorite, as each athlete wore a baggy t-shirt and swam a 25-yard freestyle, got out of the pool, and handed the t-shirt to the next swimmer in line to wear.

“They had to practice together all week on these events so they could get prepared,” Dobson girls coach Katie Franklin said. “They had to communicate and make sure they had their rhythm down, and I think it really paid off in that t-shirt relay.”

Dobson sophomores Madelyn Hamblin and Hawa Savoy, and freshman Nicole Ostler placd second behind Red Mountain by a few milliseconds in the t-shirt relay.

“My favorite event was probably the t-shirt relay because it was different from all the other things that we’ve been doing,” Hamblin said. 

Swimmers had varied emotions entering this meet compared to others. Instead of nerves and tension, most were more excited and relaxed.

“I like how it was a bunch of random events that we would never do otherwise,” Ostler said.” It wasn’t super competitive, which meant we were able to have fun but also compete at the same time.”