Coming off of last week’s tough loss to NMH, JV co-ed swim was ready for our first tri-meet, eager to beat NMH in our home pool and to face one of our toughest competitors, Eaglebrook School. And that is exactly what we did.
After the first few events, it was clear that the Eaglebrook boys were dominating in the water. However, we were staying neck-and-neck with NMH event after event. During a brief break, Coaches Madden and Miller helped us to refocus our energies and redefine our goals for the meet. They challenged us to beat the NMH swimmers in the lanes next to us and reminded us to apply everything that we had been working on in practice, from engaging our legs at the start to streamlining off the wall after turns. This moment of reflection proved incredibly useful for the team. We stuck with NMH for the rest of the meet, touching them out in many competitive races. After a close final relay, we managed to pull ahead and beat NMH by 8 points. While this meet will go down in the books as a loss to Eaglebrook, it felt like a win for our team!
This victory was certainly a group effort. New swimmers and returners alike stepped outside of their comfort zones to swim unfamiliar strokes and challenge their personal records. Many swimmers, including Angel Paes ’17, Cynthia Lugo ’20, and Sofi Sintes ’18, set personal bests in their events. Victoria Patterson ’20 and Karen Tai ’17 dominated the 100 IM, a notably challenging event involving all four strokes. Ian Gordon ’19 and Grace Mazur ’20 tackled the 100 yard butterfly for the first time with grace and speed. Johnny Xu ’18 and Sofi Sintes ’18 took on our longest event, the 500 yard freestyle, expertly pacing themselves and building the distance between themselves and the competition along the way. Our newest swimmers shined in the exhibition heats, demonstrating how much they have improved in just a few short weeks. Overall, I am incredibly proud of this team, not only for their accomplishments in the pool, but also for the way they support each other every day in practice and at meets, always helping each other to perfect their strokes and cheering at the ends of the lanes.
Written by senior captain Maddie Blake