Story originally published on Dec. 5 2016 on lakecentralnews.com
The varsity girls swimming team competed against the Valparaiso Vikings on Nov. 29. The meet ended with a final score of 91-95, Valparaiso.
“As a team, I think we all did phenomenal time-wise. [We] really raced our hardest. We can focus on what did wrong in our races to better those areas and [to] practice even harder,” Savanna Spears (11) said.
Since this was the first meet of the season, the girls are already thinking ahead on ways that they can improve. The girls are willing to focus on smaller details to help with the big picture.
“I think that this meet showed how close it can come down to and how every detail counts. We will definitely be working on details like fast starts, dolphin kicks and just finishing hard,” Mia Rinaldi (10) said.
Aside from team performance, Kallie Higgins (12) had a successful meet as an individual. She ended the night with a new pool record.
“I currently hold the pool record, which is my personal best. Tonight, I beat that by one point. I was pretty consistent with all my scores and I beat my personal best, which is the new pool record now. I’m pretty happy with that even though it’s a small improvement,” Higgins said.
The girls learned from this experience and are ready to improve for next time. The biggest lesson they learned is the importance of every swimmer on the team.
“We may have lost, but I think the team went out and did our best. I think we can all learn that we have the potential to do really well this year, but we are going to have to work our butts off. From this meet in particular, we learned that every point matters and that no matter what heat or race you’re in, you matter to the score and the team,” Sara Erwin (12) said.
Jen Chavarria 