Girls' Swimming Falls Short Against Deerfield
This past Saturday, the Exeter girls’ swim team made the long trip down to Massachusetts to face Deerfield Academy. The team remained confident despite being a bit nervous about facing their strongest rival—their opponents had won Interschols in the previous year. Each member gave her all, putting up amazing efforts, but in the end, Deerfield secured the win with 110 points against Exeter’s 76.
This meet came after an impressive victory over Milton Academy. However, since Big Red lost to Suffield Academy earlier in the season, their record is now 2-1.
Going into the meet, the girls were positive and enthusiastic. “We watched The Incredibles on the way there and everyone was pretty excited for the meet,” senior and co-captain LaRovere said.
“We got out touched a lot in the relays. Maybe we need faster reaction time.”
The team had some strong performances in the relays. However, Lower Liz Williams commented that the team “had really slow starts” on them. “We got out touched a lot in the relays. Maybe we need faster reaction time,” she said.
Williams and a few other members of the team had particularly standout performances during the meet. Williams won the 200 yard free for Exeter. Parker came in first for the 50 yard free, awarded the best time while also beating her own personal record. A third win in the 100 yard fly was also secured for Exeter by prep Wynter Sands.
Despite their loss, the girls were not daunted in any way. Emily LaRovere noted that even in the face of such high competition, the team still remained positive, remembering that they would have the opportunity to overcome against Deerfield later in the season as well.Lower Christine Baker highlighted the fact that Exeter was missing three swimmers, as two were sick and one was absent. She also stressed Exeter’s ability to keep up with Deerfield in the first half. “We were a lot closer in the middle of the meet,” Baker said. “We lost the second half, though it was good that we kept up in the first.”
Lower Heddy Parker thanked her captain for helping her shake apprehension going into the meet. “I had bad memories at that pool, swimming the exact same events so that made me nervous, but [Emily] helped me calm down,” Parker said.
As this is midway juncture in the season, the practices and training get getting more high-intensity and harder, but as they move on to their next competition, the work will pay off. The girls will not be swimming this Saturday. They do not have a meet scheduled until Jan. 25 against the Dana Hall School. They hope to use this time to recover from the loss.
In spite of the defeat, LaRovere pointed out that with a fair deal of time before their next meet, a lot of work can be done. “We have a little bit until our next meet so we will be working hard in practice,” LaRovere said.