C-Lions swimmers excel in and out of the pool

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Andrea Blankenship and Callie Lamb Tammie Toler

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February 22, 2013

C-Lions swimmers excel in and out of the pool

By TAMMIE TOLER Princeton Times The Zope Gazette Fri Feb 22, 2013, 04:58 AM EST

ATHENS — Andrea Blankenship and Callie Lamb may swim like fish, but they compete like C-Lions.

The two PikeView students are long-time members of the C-Lions Swim Team, and they are veteran swimmers at the state and national level.

Blankenship, a ninth-grader at PikeView High, and Lamb, an eighth-grader at PikeView Middle, were recently selected among the eight best female swimmers in West Virginia to compete in the Southern Zone Competition in Texas.

“There were eight people per age group — boys and girls — who got to go. They were the top eight from each boy and girl category, who got to go to Texas and compete,” Lamb explained.

Although Blankenship and Lamb are accustomed to swimming right past the competition locally, they met a new experience in the Zone pools.

“We’re used to being the fastest people in the state,” Blankenship said. “There, it was just a whole new level of competition. I have never seen people move that fast in person.”

While they didn’t blow the competition away in the Lone Star State, Lamb said she embraced the experience and will never forget the friends she made and the amazingly swift competitors who jumped into the pool in lanes beside hers.

“This is my second year, and I think I really enjoyed this year more than the first, just because I was more comfortable with everything,” she said.

Blankenship considers distance swimming her specialty — anything from the 500 meter to the mile-long contest.

Over the course of this season, she has competed with the Concord C-Lions and the YMCA of Southern West Virginia, achieving a highpoint champion title for the C-Lions, along with a series of other local, regional and state medals, trophies and honors.

She spends an average of three to eight hours of every school day and many weekends in the pool, working to improve her skills and her swim times.

Outside the pool, Blankenship is a member of the PikeView High School Marching Band and works hard to maintain an A average in high school honors classes.

She is also reportedly working to get a swim team established at PikeView High School.

Meanwhile, Lamb prefers the backstroke and sprint swims.

During the 2012 season, she was the state champion in the 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke categories, placed third overall in her age group of 13- and 14-year-olds and broke numerous team records swimming for YMCA of Southern West Virginia and Concord C-Lions. In addition, Lamb was awarded most valuable swimmer and other honors by the YMCA team and was a member of the West Virginia State Championship team, which is determined by the best overall points from the state championships. She was a highpoint champion in the Highlands Swim Association for the summer of 2012, as well as a C-Lions team highpoint champion.

In addition to swimming, Lamb plays travel soccer throughout the year and maintains an A average in school.

Surrounded by official team backpacks, dozens of ribbons, a host of trophies and more medals than they can wear, the dynamic duo is clearly talented and successful at competition.

Although Blankenship and Lamb are still members of the C-Lions, they actually competed during the winter season with the YMCA of Southern West Virginia team in Beckley, to stretch their competition time a bit. They are currently winding down their winter season, looking toward West Virginia State Championships, which will be a weekend-long match in March that pits the best swimmers in the Mountain State against each other.

They encourage anyone interested in joining the C-Lions or swimming competitively to give it a shot.

“It’s a good experience, because it’s not too competitive, but we can still get a taste of the competition,” Blankenship said.

Lamb, who said she just loves being in the water, said there are other benefits to hitting the pool during competition, too.

“It’s probably been one of the best experiences in my life. I would tell anyone just to try it. If they don’t like it, they can quit, but they might find a love for something they never thought they would like,” she said. “It think it builds your self-confidence a lot, and your people skills, just being around so many people all the time.”

— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.

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