Sports Spotlight

Sophmore Josey Jackson flys through the water against BHS and Legacy. Senior Aspen Jewkes swims the butterfly to round out her high school career.

Sports Spotlight: Girls’ Swim and Dive

— Kelsie Hildebrand, Editor-in-Chief

Junior McKayla Limbo flips and tucks off the diving boards during meet against Century.

The girls’ swim and dive team strives to achieve their goals and implements better ways to stay fit and healthy. With a new head coach, the girls are working hard raising the standards for meets and competitions. Schoellkopf, being a diving coach, works hard to be involved on the swimming side whenever possible, which comes with becoming Head Coach. “We are trying some new drills to work on dive execution,” Head Coach Claudia Schoellkopf said. “In swimming, we are working on some different focuses with heart rate and intensity.” The 2020 season consists of many new seventh, eighth and ninth graders and a core leadership group consisting of nine returning state competitors. “The team is very young with a lot of new swimmers, but we do have a lot of talent,” Junior Captain Abby Lembcke said. “The biggest goal for the team this year is to keep our team healthy and in the pool.” Although the coronavirus has drastically changed the way one lives from day to day, people are trying to figure out what guidelines and precautions need to be taken in order to keep everyone safe. It has been a process working out practices for all sports this fall season. Swim and dive has uncomfortable yet necessary protocols including masks and social distancing. “This year we have had to assign lanes for athletes to stay there, and we have split athletes by their training groups and only go to the weight room once a week.” Schoellkopf said. “This season is going to be all about rolling with the punches (known as COVID) and working on overcoming challenges.” Contamination of spectators and athletes with the virus are of the highest importance. Parents, grandparents and peers of studentathletes were hoping to be able to attend the girls’ meets, but unfortunately, there is limited seating available. “Currently each athlete gets two admissions for each home meet, and one admission for another meets in Bismarck,” Schoellkopf said. “There are no spectators for meets with more than two teams, so we will need to live stream those events.” Schoellkopf, with a lot on her plate, encourages her studentathletes everyday to work smarter, not harder. “On the athletic side, we have some big goals for the team at WDA and State,” Schoellkopf said. “Our biggest goal is to always be a part of making Mandan Student Athletes better people.”

Junior Natalie Haroldson is first up in her relay swimming the backstroke. Junior Sydnee VanderVleit dives gracefully hoping to score high during meet against Century.

Sophmore Brooklyn Leingang swims the breastroke during her relay with her peers.

Junior Abby Lembcke glides through the water during her relay earing first place.