The smell of chlorine fills their nostrils but they do not mind; they have become accustomed to this smell. They walk into the Germantown Indoor Swim Center before even the roosters start cock-a-doodle-dooing. As some climb up the starting block, they imagine the master of ceremony placing a gold medal around their neck. Then the starting pistol goes off, and everyone is in the water; their teammates cheering in the background. This is swim and dive; a sport reserved for the morning people and the fish with lungs who walk among this school’s population.

With graduates and ex-captains Jocelyn Merkin, Regan Westwood, Jordan Matus, Will Sherman, Daniel Chen and Afroditi Katsigiannakis now in college, the team looked to replace these high quality swimmers during tryouts this year. The captains this season, seniors Eric Lu, Jeffery Qin, Jonathan Yune, Elizabeth Carlson, Lauren Woodward and Anne Li, look to lead the front back to states. Along with the captains, new swimmers have been in abundance as the majority of the team last year were seniors. “We have a bunch of really strong swimmers from last years’ team and new swimmers coming in, so I think we’re going to pretty well,” senior Maddy Adams said.

Despite going to states last year, the team moved down to a lower division for this season. The girls last year lost every meet they participated in and the coach thought it would be a lucrative move to drop down a level because there was a lot of tough competition.

The drop down to a lower division has not hurt the team’s spirit however as they are just as confident that they will go back to states. “This year I think we will see a turnaround not only in the girls’ team but the team overall. Look for us to go to states. It is going to happen,” Adams said.

Swim and Dive’s first meet was Dec. 2, too late to be covered in this issue.

Maxwell Redding

Staff Writer