Swim, Dive to compete in regional swim meet Feb. 6.
Photo by Sarosh Ismail
Junior Tyler Davis swims the breaststroke during morning swim practice at the Westside Aquatic Center. The team swims laps at the beginning of practice to warm-up and for training.
The swim and dive team will compete Feb. 6 in a regional meet at the Westside Aquatics Center. Tickets will be sold at the door and pricing information can be found on the LISD website.
Preliminaries will be held in the morning, and finals will be held at night. First place at the meet will advance to state along with the next eight fastest.
“[For this meet], I have goals more than expectations,” head coach Donzie Lilly said. “I think we have several individuals that will make it to the ‘A finals’, which is top eight in the region. [For the meet], they’ll have to swim once in the morning and then once at night. The swim at night is the only one that counts.”
Junior Amber Du will be swimming the 200 relay (butterfly leg) and the 400 freestyle. She said COVID-19 has not really impacted the team’s practices, but has made it difficult for team bonding.
“[Swim practice] is a little different because everyone is separated further off,” Du said. “There is not as much of a close feeling with the team as before since everyone has to social distance, but as far as training goes, it’s just as intense.”
Junior Justin Weed, who will be competing in the meet, said he has improved significantly since last year and has been focusing on his flip turns and starts for the regional meet.
“I am swimming the 400 free relay and the 200 free relay,” Weed said. “For the 400 free relay, my expectations are to break the school record and for the 200 free relay my goal is to break even more time on my ‘50 free.’”
Lilly said the swim team has been focusing on the basics for the upcoming meet – starts, turns and finishes. He said he expects the team to do better than last year and has several individuals who he expects to place.
“Last year we had two girls make it in three events overall,” Lilly said. “I think those two girls will make it in their events [this meet], then I’d like to see at least two others girls get a second and third event. Then, I think we will have a good shot at two relays on the girls side, and on the guys’ side, my goal is to have them finish top four in their relays.”
Senior Ian Wright is the opinion section editor and this is his second year on staff. He enjoys listening to music, traveling to new places, watching Netflix...
