Just keep swimming- Lilli Eppinga

JUST KEEP With all of the popular sports at LHS—basketball, football, volleyball, among others—one activity often goes unnoticed: swimming. Sadly, since there is no pool in the basement, there is no LHS swim team. You can find many competitive swimmers in and around the LHS hallways. Although swimming is not as popular of a sport in South Dakota as others, it has many attributes that make it a vigorous and exciting sport.

Two particular students discovered their love for swimming at a very young age; LHS juniors Katie Timmer and Madalyn McQuistan found their place on the Sioux Falls Swim Team.

“I started swimming competitively when I was six years old, but I started swimming lessons when I was six months old because I always loved being in the water and my cousins also swam so I was constantly surrounded by them and wanted to be like them,” said Timmer.

With lengthy practices, nerve-racking meets and one tight-knit swim team, swimming has become a core activity and a driving goal in the lives of Timmer and McQuistan over the years.

One aspect in particular that makes swimming special to them is the important friendships they have developed during the multitude of practices and meets.

“My favorite part about swimming is all the friends I’ve made in the past few years,” said McQuistan.

Just like any activity, the people that surround you greatly affect the experience of the sport. This means that a devoted team, such as the Sioux Falls Swim Team, is a gamechanger.

“We practice a lot, around eight times a week, so we end up spending a lot of time together which allows for a really close community and family type atmosphere on the team,” said Timmer.

No matter the activity, sport or job, there is always an opportunity to form amazing relationships just as Timmer and McQuistan have. The friendships are what transform swimming into more than just a sport, but an enjoyable activity with their best friends at their side. These friendships do not just disappear when they leave the pool, they remain intact during school and during their free time. The bonds they have created over the years through this sport are incredible.

All sports take intense training whether it is shooting 400 free throws and practicing multiple plays or running miles and completing laps, but swimming is unique since training is in water rather than land. Most people think swimming consists of laps and treading water, but in reality, it is so much more.

“Swim practices usually entail a lot of swimming obviously, but we work on different techniques to help make our stroke better, different speed work and distance. It is comparable to track in some senses,” said Timmer.

Swimming takes strong endurance and tons of practice, which is why Timmer and McQuistan spend so much time at the pool. Practices for the Sioux Falls Swim Team consist of several different events and usually take place twice a day.

“Swim practices involve swimming for two hours,” said McQuistan. “We are supposed to go to at least five practices a week, but there are seven offered.” SWIMMING by Lilli Eppinga

SWIMMING

Along with the training, there are also swim meets that are similar to track.

“Swim meets are usually three days: Friday evenings, Saturdays and Sundays,” said McQuistan. You normally swim a certain number of events. The most nerve-racking part for me is when it is a prelim fi nal meet and I have to swim fi nales and there’s way more pressure at fi nales because that will be your fi nal placement.”

Another noteworthy aspect of the sport is the physical toll it takes on a person as well as the abilities it takes to compete.

“In swimming, you can get out of shape a lot easier than other sports,” said Timmer. “When you miss even two practices you are basically taking four or fi ve days to get back to where you were before.”

The physical endurance it takes to swim for hours is astonishing, and it is what makes this sport so unique. However, while the sport has many upsides and benefi ts, there is the setback of how many hours these swimmers have to put into their sport. Often times, these LHS swimmers must sacrifi ce time with their friends, time to do homework and time to just relax.

“Swimming interferes with my social and school life a lot because we have to miss a lot for swim meets and we have practice so often that it usually ends up cutting into time that I would be spending with friends,” said Timmer.

Even while sticking with the intense sport, both Timmer and McQuistan have excelled in their school and social lives. It not only has benefi ted them in their relationships with teammates, but also with learning how to manage their time and stay in great physical shape in order to be at their peak performance.

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY SIOUX FALLS SWIM TEAM