sports.
Eat. Sleep.
Swim. Repeat.
Junior Ellie Hartwig does the butterfly stroke while swimming during practice. The Lady Jays swim and dive team has had a sucessful season so far and is currently preparing for state. Photo by Ashley Ritter
This is one of the best years yet for the Lady Jays swim and dive team. Reported by Anthony Savastino Design by Emma Stauffer
Swimmers leap off the block, divers dive into the pool, everyone’s eyes are on the chance to win. Every swimmer in the meet knows they can’t win the entire meet individually, they are going to need their teammates alongside them. The Lady Jays swim and dive team recognizes just how much they need their teammates to win and are fighting for their best season yet. “Last year we had a team that bonded better than any team we’ve ever had and most of those girls are back,” head coach Chris Murphy said. “They have helped the team this year, not only by being fast, but also getting along well and doing what needs to be done for the team to be successful.” Swim meets are a series of 12 events that all add up to a team’s final score. “There are eight individual events, three relays and then there is a diving event which counts as one of the 12 events,” sophomore Sydney Usher said. “The events start with the 200 medley relay and ends with the 400 free relay. The eight individual events are in between those along with the 200 free relay.” Every sports team is going to run into problems during the season, but the good teams always find a way to turn their
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the bell February 2020 Sports
Senior Christina Rangel glides through the water as she does a kick set while warming up at practice. Photo by Charlene Nguyen
problems into positives. “Sometimes when you have a big group of girls who are all really good it’s hard to be competitive and push each other in the right way,” sophomore Sidney Morris said. “I think sometimes people are competitive in the wrong ways. I think you have to build each other up to swim fast and I think sometimes we have problems with that. Sometimes we are each other’s competition rather than other teams, but we’re a lot better with handling that now that we’re later in the season.” One aspect of the team that helps them compete at a high level is they have known each other for quite a while. “A lot of us come from the same club team, so we already are really close,” Morris said. “We are all really close friends so we’re really good at pushing each other. We hang out all of the time, even over the summer during the off-season.” Liberty North is a competitive team that has created challenges for the Lady Jays in the past. “We’re one of the top teams in the city, but also one of the best teams in the city is Liberty North,” Murphy said. “They have tended to just beat us by a little bit in every single meet this year except for the last one, where we beat
