Celina High School student, Campbelle Gass, has grown up with her sister, Claire Gass, for 15 years of her life. Both sisters participated in Amfy Swim at the Mercer County YMCA in Celina, Ohio. Claire Gass became an exceptionally good swimmer, eventually advancing on to nationals for her phenomenal breaststroke. In fact, Claire Gass trained me how to swim breaststroke correctly.
Because of Claire’s successes, Campbelle feels like the two sisters are compared. Campbelle says, “my sister is really smart and really good at swimming, and now that I’m swimming, people contrast my times from her freshman year to her times from freshman year. Also, people compare her academics to my academics.” Even Campbelle herself compares herself to Claire on some things.
Campbelle, however, is much younger than Claire, so it is unrealistic for people to compare the two girls. Campbelle says she quit Amfy Swim roughly six years ago. She just recently began swimming late this swim season and she is already an extremely good swimmer. She has the potential to make it as far as Claire or even farther. Campbelle hopes that she can one day be as good as her sister, saying, “it’s going to be hard to do what she’s done, but it would be cool if I could.”
Her first swim meet was at South Adams High School in Indiana. She was entered into the A medley relay competing in the butterfly stroke for her relay. She was also in the 200 IM, 100 Free and the 200 A Free Relay. She competed spectacularly in each event!
Campbelle states that “swimming is her [Claire’s] life.” Claire is a Junior in college. Claire attends Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderndale, Florida. Claire, of course, is swimming for them. Last year, Claire had achieved third in Nationals for breaststroke, making her third in the nation for division two girls.
Campbelle Gass has Melissa Barnett and, former, Alli Darras, now Alli Williams, as high school coaches. Claire had Paige Bader and also Alli Darras. However, Claire swam for Amfy her whole life and has known a variety of different coaches and coaching styles throughout her swimming career.
Usually, I take Campbelle to swim practice after school. Once we get to the YMCA, Campbelle goes straight to the locker room, gets changed, then proceeds to go float in the pool. Campbelle loves to float in the pool with her flippers before practice. On Tuesdays however, she has to put the lane lines in, which of course involve her flippers. Sometimes, she practices her bucket turns before practice as well. Nonetheless, once the clock hits 2:50, she pushes off the wall to start her 200-400 meter long warm up. Next, she begins her practice. After that, she gets out of the pool then gathers in the team circle as Alli tells us about lifts the next morning, or about how everyone did a great job, or how we didn’t work hard enough. It varies day to day. Then everyone gets close and Jeri Cluckey, cheers, “Dogs on three,” then everyone else chimes in saying, “ one, two, three, dogs!”
Back in the locker room, Campbelle doesn’t change out of her swimsuit after practice. In fact, she just threw clothes over top of her wet, sopping suit leaving wet marks on her butt. From there, she walks out of the locker room and waits for Jackson Newcomb to leave the locker room to take her home, or she simply just leaves with her mom. All this practice that she endures, is leading her to become a great swimmer like her sister.
