Parkersburg’s two senior swimmers, Lily Farinash (left) and Adelaide Vann share a final moment in their high school career with the Big Reds’ runner-up plaque from last week’s West Virginia High School State Swim Meet in Morgantown, W.Va. (Photo provided)

PARKERSBURG – Practically connected at the hip for the past four years, Parkersburg’s Adelaide Vann and Lily Farinash followed different paths in the girls’ pursuit of a state swim title this season.

Last week at the state finals in Morgantown, the Big Reds’ quest remained low key before shocking the field and coming out of nowhere to place runner-up.

The outpouring of emotions, especially between Vann and Farinash, was off the charts.

“As soon as we finished the 400 free relay, me and Adelaide just started crying – that was our last time we would swim at PHS forever,” Farinash said. “Adelaide is truly like my sister. We are definitely best friends and I can’t imagine going through the four years as a Big Red without her.

“The team jokes that the two of us are like a married couple. Whether we are in another lane or another event or one of us is struggling, we are there for one another.”

Several individuals for PHS had a story to tell about clearing hurdles in order to make last week possible. For the two seniors, their love for the sport carried them through.

Vann was not a guarantee to make the trip. On the day the team was scheduled to depart for Morgantown, she was running a high temperature. That morning, she visited an urgent care and was tested as having the flu.

Her instructions were to go home, go to bed and get plenty of rest. But Vann had no part of that solution. She was adamant about competing at states.

“Wednesday morning I had a 100 degree fever,” Vann said. “Wen I went to urgent care and I tested positive for the flu, I was told not to go anywhere and don’t do anything. Go home. I said no, this is not how this works. I told them to give me the medicine. It was a huge setback I was not expecting.”

Vann rode separately with her parents (Patricia and Aaron Vann) and grandmother (Sandy Burrows). Typically, team members share hotel rooms on overnight trips. Vann had a room to herself. Texting was her main form of communicating with her teammates.

“Anytime I was not in the pool, I was wearing a mask,” Vann said. “There was no hesitation about going – I love the sport and would do anything to swim that meet.”

In addition to competing on the 200 free relay and 400 relay, Vann placed fifth in her two individual events (50 freestyle and 100 freestyle) on Thursday.

“I did what I always do and sprinted my heart out,” Vann said. “As I was finishing up Thursday, I was definitely exhausted – physically, emotionally and mentally from everything. I still did not feel great, but felt better than I did on Wednesday.”

Before the flu set in, Vann already had her share of ordeals to fight through. A knee injury during the regular season forced her to sit out three meets.

“The entire season I had been struggling with a knee injury,” Vann said. “Nothing specific happened, but I was in excruciating pain. The joints in my knee are hyper mobile – double and triple what a normal person would be. It was such a hard thing to overcome.

“During states, my teammates had to force me to sit down because I wouldn’t stop cheering. The adrenaline took over and I wasn’t feeling as much soreness during the event. I’ve been in bed for the past few days and my body is definitely sore.”

While Vann attempted to overcome her brick walls, Farinash was climbing her share of obstacles. Not on Day 1. Rather on Day 2 when she was scheduled to compete in four events over the course of three hours during the morning prelims.

According to PHS coach Emily Martin, Farinash swam 900 yards between the prelims and finals.

“Thursday night, I was definitely nervous,” Farinash said. “I was extremely nervous for regionals and states and that’s strange for me because I’m not usually nervous for those events. I can’t say why I was nervous, but I was also super excited because of how hard the girls on our team had worked.

“On Friday, it was physically demanding and definitely tough in the morning because I had the 500 freestyle – which is definitely one of the hardest if not the hardest event. I was pretty tired, but excited for the team and that kept me going.”

When coach Martin approached Farinash about embracing the physical demands about to greet her, Farinash was quick to respond. Without any hesitation in her voice, the answer was yes.

“Our best chance to be state champ or state runner-up was to max out in the 200 free relay and 400 free relay – and that meant four events for Lily on the second day, which is unimaginable,” Martin said. “With it being her senior year, she didn’t have to do that grueling schedule.

“She looked at me and told me she didn’t want to walk away wondering what could have happened. Rather, she would give it everything she had and go for the max number of points. She said, ‘if we didn’t get any hardware then we could walk away proud knowing we tried.'”

For the final event of the meet on Friday, Vann and Adelaide joined Lily Jones and Delaney Snodgrass for the 400 free relay. When the girls completed their race, they placed second and one slot ahead of their prelim seed time.

As a result, instead of sharing second place with Morgantown, second place hardware in the team standings belonged to the Big Reds outright.

“As soon as we finished, Adelaide and I looked at each other and just started crying,” Farinash said. “On the podium it went from crying to happy tears.”

Vann described the medals presentations and awards ceremony like a scene in a movie. When she made eye contact with Farinash everyone and everything around them just sort of disappeared.

“We looked over at each other, she started to cry and I started to cry,” Vann said. “At the end of the meet, we got our trophy. We were holding it and looked at each other, and just smiled. It was like everybody melted away. It was just me and my best friend.

“We weren’t that close in elementary and middle school then we came to high school our freshman year, going to practices together and doing after-meet activities together. So the bond kept growing through the years. That connection has grown into one of the greatest friendships.”

The state meet experience would not be complete without mentioning those who also made the trip as state qualifiers for the PHS girls program. As a way of sacrificing an ideal seed time for the relays, coach Martin filled out lineups which would put as many bodies on the bus for Morgantown.

“The best way to describe our team, it is truly a family,” Farinash said. “I think of this team as my little sisters.”

With regional seeding, several relays were unlikely to qualify for the final heats at state. Opposing coaches looking over psych sheets did not have the full story in terms of what PHS was capable of.

“We only had six girls on the team last year – this year we had a ton of freshmen and several sophomores who were just as amazing,” Vann said. We were able to take almost every single girl to state. I just love these girls. I want them to be as good people as they can be.”

“This year was one of the best state experiences I have had. I take that back. This was the best state experience I ever had.”

THE FUTURE

Both in the pool and away from practice, PHS coach Emily Martin gave high praise to Vann and Farinash. She even went so far as to describe them as the best leaders she has coached since taking over the position.

“Losing those two seniors, I have never seen a team sobbed,” Martin said. Their role on the team is everything.”

Both girls have their sights set on following in their parents’ footsteps.

Farinash’s parents (Kelly and Lloyd Farinash) are both doctors. In college, Farinash, plans to major in medical engineering or physics and go to medical school, and like her father, go into the field of radiation oncology.

“I like how my patents help people – so a career in medicine really inspired me to do what they do,” Farinash said.

While Farinash plans to continue competing in club swimming, Vann hopes to continue her swimming career at the collegiate level. She has a couple of schools in mind while also studying psychology.

“Both my parents are therapists and I want to follow in their footsteps,” Vann said.