Girls’ Swimming Take Home the Win, Boys Not So Lucky

This Saturday, both the boys’ and girls’ varsity swimming and diving squads traveled to Loomis Chaffee to compete against their respective teams. The two-and-a-half hour drive provided an opportunity for the teams to rest up, but despite this, the boys’ team still suffered a tough loss at the hands of the boys’ squad with a final score of 81-100. The girls’ team, however, managed to pull off a victory, finishing the meet with a score of 103-78.The meet was a tough loss for the boys. The Loomis swimmers were well prepared for the meet, and unfortunately Big Red’s boys’ squad couldn’t keep up.“Some people went into the meet thinking it would be an easy win, but a combination of team members feeling under the weather and Loomis swimming exceptionally well led to the unfortunate loss,” upper Erick Friis said about the meet. The Loomis swimmers also managed to break two of their own school records during the meet.The Loomis team also had the home-pool advantage. “Their pool is also a meters pool, as opposed to our yards pool, which can be difficult to get used to and race in,” Friis added.Meanwhile, the girls’ team performed admirably during the meet, and team members expressed their pleasure with our team’s effort. “It was a good meet. We're getting used to traveling and then swimming, which is really good, since interschols is so far away at Hotchkiss,” upper Michelle Ysrael said.The girls swam extremely well in the relays, with every single one coming in at either first or second place. Senior Hope Logan swam extremely well in the breaststroke and butterfly events. Logan and Ysrael also came in second and first place respectively in the 100-meter butterfly race. Captain Diane Lee also managed to come in first place in her 500-meter freestyle race.While the boys had difficulty adjusting to the meter pool, the girls had been preparing for the change. “This time around we were more prepared for meters, as our practices were more emphasized on the idea of ‘think in meters!’” Ysrael said.The boys, regardless of the score, still had some great swims by a number of guys. “Will Belmont had a few nice freestyle races, along with Andrew Eigner,” lower Graham Hazlett said. ”The competition was tough though, the Loomis team was rested for the meet, which made it tough for us to score points.” Hazlett went on to express his satisfaction with the season so far, despite a few losses against some well-rested teams. He hopes that with all the training the team has had this season, they will be able to go on to perform well at Interschols.The girls will surely be looking to finish the season strong too. “I'm really excited to see how the girls do at the end of the season after we’ve been tapering. They've been working so hard and we've improved so much,” Ysrael said. The girls expect a good performance at Interschols, and hope that they can accomplish their goal.