Fabulous four finishes with victory
Rose girls swimming state champions Riley Brown, Iris Eldridge, Hadleigh Kulas and Clara Pierce Smith have recently made Rose history with a story of perseverance, and love not just for the sport, but for each other.
Swimming with each other throughout their high school careers, they knew that the 2025-2026 season was going to be filled with many memories, laughter and pure friendship. The question, however, was which road would take them there. Meets got cancelled one after the other, due to weather and pool shortages, causing these girls to encounter issues they certainly did not expect.
For swim coach Julie Berry, in her 20 years of dedication to the Rose swim team, she has never experienced such conflict before. Regular meets getting cancelled were already a struggle, however, Regionals was cancelled as well, causing a lack of
Photo by Riley brown
opportunity for this relay to cut their times, leaving them with nothing but a guess as to how they would perform at States. Despite their scheduling conflicts, Berry saw a unique connection between the girls that reassured her they would give it their all and encourage each other.
“It did in the long run hurt us more than we thought because the entry times that they were able to achieve during the regular season were then the times they had to go into states with,”
Berry said. “So if they had another meet, they would've had a faster time and would have been placed in a faster heat with more competition.”
Considering they didn’t get the assumed amount of meets to improve and cut time, the team pivoted and didn’t let it hold them back.
“We were positive throughout it all; we just swam what we could and didn't harp on what we couldn't,” Kulas said.
This mentality was kept all throughout the season by each of these athletes. It is believed that part of the reason why they were able to become state champions is because they did not stress, but instead built each other up and pushed themselves to become the best swimmers they could be.
“It's a different feel than other teams, everybody genuinely wants to see everybody else succeed and do well, that's why I keep coming back year after year,” Berry said. “The environment that they have been able to maintain, where it's helpful, positive, and everybody genuinely supports… and cheers everybody else on when they're in the pool and out of the pool.”
Though nervous and going into the state championship as the fifth ranked relay team, these girls rallied and gave it their all. Each one of them had a personal best time at this meet, and in this specific 200 relay, the four of them, through tenacity and sportsmanship, were able to surpass their prediction and got second… or so they thought...
“They were only giving medals to the top three, even though last year they did top four, so we were worried that we weren’t even going to get a medal," Eldridge said. "We were really happy to get second place..., so when we saw that the other team got disqualified it was just amazing that we got first.”
“Us thinking we were second initially, you would’ve thought we'd won based off of our reaction,” Kulas said.
Little did they know, the team that got first place originally was disqualified because of a false start, pushing these four to victory. The discovery was made when Smith received a text, leaped out of her chair, and immediately rushed to her teammates to tell them the good news. This moment was full of bittersweet emotions. Their hard work had finally paid off, and the icing on the cake was being able to accomplish this goal with their best friends. There were tears of joy and sadness, knowing they had just completed the last relay they would ever swim together.
“I'm really happy I got to do it with my relay, because I've been around the three of them for so many years and I just love all of them,” Kulas said.
These friendships were made through years of sweat, tears and chlorine. For senior Smith, these relationships are what brings her back season after season.
“High school swim and being with all of my friends in such a positive and fun environment with no stress definitely brought back my love to swim,” Smith said.
These state champions treated every practice and meet they got to go to as an opportunity to have fun and grow. With this mentality, they were able to reach immeasurable success, becoming the first girls relay in Rose swim history to win a state championship. Their names, along with title of State Champions, will forever be on the walls of Rose, and the memories created through this season will forever be in their hearts.