Averaging about 6,000 yards a day and putting in over 12 hours of practice time each week, members of the girls swim team began their season Nov. 10.
“We also want to win conference and have an undefeated season,” head coach Allison Wallace said. “Our plan is simply to work hard and be fully dedicated to each other and what we have to do to get the team there.”
Practice starts as the team helps set up the pool by putting in lane lines before doing a few 100 yard sets (4 laps) for warm up. Then they take on their main set of a few 1,000 yard sets before finishing up with a sprint set of a couple 100 yard sets. The divers, however, have a different routine.
“When we start, we stretch. Then, we do a core workout because when you dive you have to use a lot of your core muscles. After that we are on the board for the rest of practice,” junior Hannah Bozue said. “We’ll pick a couple different categories of dives to work on. The categories are fronts, backs, inwards, reverses and twisters. Or if it’s right before a meet we’ll go through our individual dive lists and just do the dives we’ll be competing.”
The team does not just spend practice together. They are also focused team bonding outside of practice.
“We are planning our team sleepover and we are also planning to do a team scavenger hunt this year,” senior Grace Miller said.
On top of that, the girls go for breakfast together to Einstein’s or Bread Co. after morning practice on Fridays. Each of them also participates in their ‘big sister, little sister’ tradition of gift and advice giving from the upperclassmen to the lowerclassmen.
“My personal goal for this year is to get close with all my teammates and make memories and have fun with them,” Bozue said.
Coach Allison Wallace checks in with and coaches sophomore Sarah Bonnett.
Using the relationships they form from team bonding, they push each other in practice to meet and beat the challenges from Coach Wallace. On occasion, Wallace has been known to ask the divers to participate in the lap-swimming aspect of the team.
“She just wants to see how it will go or challenge us to do something different or participate in a relay, I think. As long as everyone gets to participate and have fun,” Bozue said.
At the same time, the girls have high expectations and goals for each other.
“I think we could get more girls placing in the top 16 at state this year with some new freshman coming in this year. Some seniors, juniors and sophomores could definitely get it this year,” Miller said.
As for the dive team, Bozue expects to see her teammates senior Megan Hitchcock and sophomore Sophie Wojdylo achieve state this year.
“The journey to state will be hard, but it’s definitely achievable. As long as I keep calm during the meets and don’t over think my dives I should be fine. My main goal for state is to bump up the degree of difficulty for my twisters,” Wojdylo said.
Before they can get as far as state though the team will have to take on one of their biggest rivals: Glendale. However, Bozue has her sights focused elsewhere.
“I like the end of season because we’ve all gone through the team bonding,” Bozue said. “I feel like we all know each other and have gotten through some tough days together. So at the end we’re all looking back on what we’ve gotten through and we can celebrate our accomplishments.”
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