Girls’ Swim Team Torches Loomis

For their last home meet of the year, the girls’ swim team hosted Loomis Chaffee School this past Saturday on Feb. 12. Having won their last three meets, which were all home as well, the girls went into the event with a great deal of determination and confidence. Ultimately, Exeter came out with a 107-77 point victory of Loomis, setting their current record at 5-2.

The girls began the day with a competitive attitude and mindset, expecting stiff competition from their opponents. The day was foreseen as a hard one. In addition to not tapering the day before due to a missed practice on Thursday’s snow day, the practices in the previous week had been particularly difficult. “They were tough practices the week before. We all felt sore and tight,” lower Samantha Gove said.

While some of the team shared similar sentiments, others felt that the longer, more arduous practices prepared them for the day. The team also pointed out how it expected a challenge from Loomis. In previous years, meets with them have always been especially close, sometimes with Exeter losing. While pushing through the day and getting through each event was difficult for the girls, they surpassed their own expectations and beat Loomis by a good margin.

The season has been chocked full of meets with standout performances and swimmers beating their personal records over and over again. Many of the same girls kept up to the standards they had set in weeks before. Lower Liz Williams won herself another 100 yard free, out touching every other swimmer by more than two seconds. Lower Heddy Parker came first in another 200 yard free, although it was a fairly close race against her opponents. In the 50 yard free, Exeter came first with lower Tina Wang, first in the 100 yard back with prep Wynter Sands and first in the 100 yard breast with lower Ashleigh Lackey.

In addition to these victories, Exeter came first in all three relays. Lower Ariane Avandi commented on the team’s success with the majority of these relays this season. “This season, as an overall, all our relays have been getting so much better,” she said.

As the season draws closer to its end, practices get tougher mentally but the team has both the Exeter/Andover meet as well as Interschols to prepare for. “We’re really excited for E/a. We need to win this year, and keeping that in mind will help us get through the next week,” Gove said.