Swim and Dive look to build off of last year’s success

Kadie Clark compete in the breaststroke at a recent home meet. Photo by Autumn Campbell

Kadie Clark compete in the breaststroke at a recent home meet. Photo by Autumn Campbell

Lauren Collins, Managing Editor

Kadie Clark compete in the breaststroke at a recent home meet. Photo by Autumn Campbell

The girls swim and dive team has had a successful season so far.

Junior Lauren Markley is excited for how well the team has been doing at practice.

“All of our teammates have been doing so great at practice. This is probably the best JV team I’ve ever seen, so we’re just climbing up the stairs to success,” Markley said.

Coach Erich Oberlander is proud of the start the team has had.

“We are off to a really strong start. We already have two divers and two relays qualified for state. We have been really solid. I have seen tons of improvement already from the beginning of the season,” Oberlander said.

There are many expectations that team members and coach alike have for the team.

Oberlander says that there will be some really good performance at meets.

I think we will see some really good performances at the meets that we always focus on, which are COMO, conference and state. I am hoping we can win our fifth Conference title in a row,” Oberlander said.

Junior diver Bailey Carter believes there is a tough season ahead.

“Our conference is really hard this year. A lot of new people came in this year who are really good, so it’s going to be hard to make top 16 at any meet especially State. There are a lot of new freshmen in the state that have been diving for a long time, so it’s going to be difficult once we get to State,” Carter said.

Oberlander explains how this season is different from previous ones.

“It is different because of the 12 seniors we graduated from last year’s team, but other than that, we have a great core group returning. It is also different because we will be depending on some of the girls who were freshmen and sophomores to take that next step up and compete for points at varsity conference,” Oberlander said.

Markley believes comradery plays a huge part of the team’s success.

“The more that we interact with each other, the more we want to practice, and the more that gets done,” Markley said.