Diving head first into their season,the swim and dive team are making waves in the Suburban League Conference. The team has been in the water since the beginning of November with exhausting after school practices and fatiguing early morning lifts. After all of this hard work and training, the Bees are finally ready to show the world what they’ve got!
Starting the season with the intrasquad meet where alumni and past swimmers come to compete with the team, the swimmers get a good feel of what it’s like to be back in the water competing against some familiar faces. The team competed at Wadsworth on Dec. 3.
The team consists of three captains of each gender. On the boys side, the captains are senior Brady McGrath and juniors Landon Mroczka and William Wendland. For the girls, senior Annalise Jacak and juniors Mallory Koepke and Adriana Tartara are leading the team.
Tartara sheds some light on how she came into this position of leadership. She says, “I wanted to be captain because I like to organize things for the team and I like that people look up to me as a role model.”
Senior Libby Wolf has been a part of the team since her freshman year and has been swimming since she was young. She’s a strong asset to the team, and works hard every practice. Everyone can learn something from a sport or club. Wolf shares, “I have learned that strength in your team and your relationship with your teammates helps you push through discomfort, making it easier when you have a bond with people who are doing the same thing.”
Swimming, like many sports can be tough. It hard not only mentally, but physically too. The body has to endure a lot of physical change, especially at the beginning of the season. Getting used to being in the water and getting into the swimmer shape can take some time.
The team has had many successes in the past years. Junior Benjamin Ackerman qualified for the state meet in the 100 breaststroke last season. This year Ackerman hopes to attend the state meet again and maybe even with a few teammates. Swimming for many years, Ackerman says, “Hard work pays off. Discipline is the key to success, and [I try to] not let my mind take over my body.”
Swimming isn’t just a sport about endurance and mental ability, it’s so much more. Swimming teaches people how to swim better, in general, and it can teach determination or how to establish relationships with teammates.
The diving team consists of three divers. Seniors Kya Emrich, Rachael Kirin, and sophomore Hayden Stewart. Kirin is committed to the United States Air Force Academy to pursue her diving and educational career. This may be considered quite an accomplishment considering she only started diving her sophomore year and has continued to excel.
Although the team has lost numbers in size the talent is still growing. Dive is more than an individual sport for the athletes. It involves working together to get a score for the team, but also working towards individual goals. Stewart says, “ It’s not just an individual sport, you should view it as a team sport so you can hype up your teammates so they have a good meet.”
For the divers it can be hard to perform well. With many different skills and flips they have to learn, it can be difficult to execute perfectly when the time comes. Not only can it be hard to perform, but there are also dangers with each dive. It can be really easy to slip on the board or even just make one wrong move and hit your head while flipping.
“I made a lot of friends through diving and swimming and they are definitely different. Dive is more technical and not as much strength or cardio, more just coordination,” says Emrich. Being the only swimmer and diver, Emrich gets a feel of both ends with the differences and similarities between the sport. She knows what it’s like to swim laps in the water endlessly, but she also knows the mechanics it takes to execute a good dive.
An exciting season is ahead for the swim and dive team. The rigorous pre-season training has set the stage, not just for individual records, but for the team. This year’s success won’t be measured just by the times on the clock, but by the support and commitment they show each other over the coming months. With determination in every stroke and focus in every dive, the team is ready to make a significant splash and write the next exciting chapter.
