There was a certain moment from last weekend’s 4A state girls swimming meet that stuck with a lot of the Cascade team after it was over, but it’s not the moment you might think.
About one minute and 38.29 seconds before the Bruins swam their state-meet record time in the 200-freestyle relay, the girls got to walk out for swimmer introductions, which entailed a daunting task for the Cascade team.
Picking a walk up song.
“One of the coolest feelings I ever had was walking out to the song we chose for the 200-relay finals,” said Cascade senior Nichole Carlson, who led off the Bruins’ record-setting relay. “It was really cool to finally have a walkout song.”
Kalena Laurent, another senior and the anchor of the relay team, enjoyed the experience as well.
“Getting to choose a walkout song for a 200-freestyle relay was so cool,” she said.
The team went with the new Kesha single, “Die Young.” None of the swimmers knew the name of the track, so Carlson had to sing part of it to the people in charge of walk-up music. They recognized it and hooked the girls up with their song.
“Die Young” was picked it for a couple simple reasons.
“It was catchy and there were no swear words in it,” Laurent said.
Kesha helped propel the Cascade relay team of Carlson, Darcie Booth, Danielle Booth and Laurent to a state-meet record in the 200-freestyle relay, as well as a third place finish overall at the state meet. It was the best finish by a Bruins swim team ever at the championship event.
Helping make sure the Bruins’ seniors went out on top.
“It definitely ended on a really high note,” said Laurent, who will be swimming at Fordham University in New York next year. “There’s no better way I could have ended my senior year.”
And now when the members of that Cascade relay team hear “Die Young” in the future, they’ll think back to that state championship meet last weekend in Federal Way, where they made Cascade school history.
“It’s cool every time we hear it now,” Carlson said. “It’s reminiscing.”
Below is the video for “Die Young.”
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