Swim and dive make waves at state
West’s swim and dive team competes at South.
March 3, 2017
The swim and dive team closed the winter season out with five wins and four losses.
“The season went well. We had three top eight finishes at Conference including first and second finishes. Sophie Wojdylo, a junior diver, qualified for state and finished 14th.
We had a lot of injuries and divers out for part of the season,” assistant diving coach Michelle Bell said. “The girls who were out, came back ready to work and got right back into the swing of things.”
Senior Grace Folkins’ motivation is her teammates.
“The people on the team make me a better person and the practices get me in the best shape of my life,” Folkins said. “I love my team so much and am so proud of how far we’ve come this year.”
Around of one third of the team were freshmen according to Maria Newton, 11 out of 31.
“We have a much younger team,” sophomore Maria Newton said. “Many of our swimmers last year were seniors and we have a good number of freshman this year.”
Newton feels strongly about her team and how they have improved together, as well as embracing the personal connections and friendships she has from joining swim.
“Swimming takes up a lot of my time and has, therefore, definitely made me a more efficient worker,” Newton said. “It also has introduced me to tons of new awesome teammates and friends.”
Overall, swim and dive placed fourth in state this year and 31st. In the first meet, Wojdylo qualified for state in diving, then finished 14th despite injuring her hands in the middle of the season by hitting the board on a reverse.
“To start on such a high note, qualifying for state at the first meet, and then hitting my hands, it was a little rough. And this sounds cheesy, but my teammates helped me get through it. Without the rest of the dive team, I don’t think I could have done nearly as well as I did,” Wojdylo said. “I think the team should be really proud of what we did this year. Everyone was battling injuries and illnesses, and I think that we had a really good season even with all of our struggles.”
The team created inspirational shirts for motivation for conference.
“The quote we had for our conference shirt was ‘challenges cause some to break, others to break records’ and that really stayed with me,” Wojdylo said. “We had a lot of challenges this season, but we were able to rise above and I’m proud to be a part of such an amazing team.”
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