Swim team struggles as year begins

Claire Leanard, Staff Writer

Imagine needing to take an AP Stats quiz, but you haven’t done the practice. It’s pretty stressful, right? This perfectly explains the girls’ swim team right now. The season felt like it was going to be their best season yet; blood was pumping, hair was being capped when suddenly the team is ambushed. The swim team were expecting to practice in Illinois College’s pool in Bruner Fitness and Recreation Center, but the pool has been experiencing plumbing difficulties. Without a secured date for when the pool was to be fixed, the girls moved to the YMCA. All seemed well until the YMCA had to close for cleaning and experienced plumbing issues as well. The Country Club pool was the last resort.

Even with all of these setbacks, the coach, Sam Black, still has a bright outlook on this upcoming season. He believes that there is a lot of work to do, but we will overcome. Coach Black’s way of improving the season after these obstacles is to return to our normal practice routine within the next week which can be accomplished because the IC pool is up and running as of September 13. The team has a lot of catching up to do, but Black believes they can do it.

The swimmers on the JHS team to look out for this year include Seniors Ryley Savage and Anna Stampf who dominate in the 50 and 100 freestyle. Sarah Doss, a junior, is an expert in the 500 free and the 200IM. Anne Becker and Vianey Bustos are credited with being capable of swimming any event we may need. There is also a large group of freshmen that are dedicated to helping the team out. “As with any team, every member is important,” said Coach Black. The team needs everyone at their best to compete with the schools in CS8.

With the CS8 being such a great swim conference, it has produced many D-1 athletes and even Olympic gold medalists. The girls’ swim team has to work their best to compete with some of the highest levels in the state. These girls are in it to win it.