The strong swimming Spartans made massive waves during the Conference 7 swim meet held at the Audrey Moore RECenter securing second place for both the boys’ and the girls’ team with many moving on to regionals.
“Overall, it was pretty good. [There were] lot of good races, a lot of people giving it their all and trying hard,” said sophomore, Lane Stone who competed in the 200-yard and the 500-yard freestyle.
Dedicated Spartans of the swim and dive team constantly push their bodies to the limit in order to shave off a few milliseconds or to perfect their diving technique, which could be the difference between swimming like a shark and swimming with them. Practicing for an hour, four days a week may seem easy, but these devoted athletes vigorously strive for greatness.
“Personally, I dropped time, and as a team we scored well,” said sophomore, Hunter Boyer whose event was the 100- breaststroke.
Preparing for a swim meet is similar to other sports, where you make sure not to push yourself too hard and prepare your body for the intense activity.
“We eat a lot of carbs [before the meet] and don’t do any strenuous stuff,” said freshman, Neil Kratzer who competed in the 100-yard backstroke.
Like other sports, most athletes compete on some sort of travel team or club to keep their bodies at their peak fitness and to maintain or sometimes improve on their times and techniques during the offseason. Stone competes with Nation’s Capital Swim Team, where he can improve on his times and practice with athletes from other schools across the area.
“It was fun; I got to see a bunch of my friends from club swim,” said Stone, “I got to hang out with some of the high schoolers that I don’t usually get to hang out with. It was a nice little social hour.”
Although, the teams did not do as well as last year, where the girls won their third year in a row and the boys went undefeated, many were still pleased with the team’s overall performance.
“As a team we did great and we had a lot of swimmers going best times! So that is always fun to watch,” said senior Javier Ruisanchez.
Being on a team is like being in a family, where they are constantly supportive and encouraging. A lot of people thrive in a team atmosphere which is why the team is so close and they are able to perform well together.
“The team was very excited going into prelims and we all had a blast. Once we got to finals the nerves, excitement and the adrenaline kicked in. We were cheering as loud as we could and it was great seeing the entire team cheering all of our swimmers in every individual race,” said Ruisanchez.
The success of the team is based off of how many points you score in either a relay or an individual’s swim at conferences. In a relay, if a team scores first, they receive 40 points, in second, they receive 34 points and in third, the team receives 32 points. In individual races, if a swimmer places first they receive 20 points, if a swimmer places second place they receive 17 points, and so on and so forth onto sixteenth place, which is why it is pertinent for a swimmer to try their very best.
“I know I have to swim my races, try my best, and try hard,” said Stone.