The girls’ swim and dive team started off its season with a meet against Liberty and Fort Zumwalt West high schools. Team captain Aubrey Maxwell is happy with how the meet turned out because of the level of difficulty that competing against two teams brings for them.

While Maxwell is pleased she thinks that the team needs to be faster and work harder in certain areas.

“It was our first meet, and we all swam pretty well but we still have to get faster. A lot of girls on our team have to work on flip turns and things like that. We’ve got our technique down, we just have to work in practice on doing it faster,” said Maxwell.

Maxwell also earned first in two events, 100 and 200 freestyle. Steinmeyer, placed third in an event, co-captain Carli Buchanan, placed first in the 50 free and 500 free, Javier, placed first in diving. Freshmen Mariah Javier and Kayla Steinmeyer were pleased with how their first meet went even though both thought there was room for improvement.

Javier thought she could do better herself, Maxwell believed that the team’s’ techniques are good, Steinmeyer felt that the opposite was true.  

“I think for it being the first meet we did really good, but we could have done better,” said Steinmeyer. “As a team we could probably improve on strokes a little bit more.”

Steinmeyer said the highlight for her was their first relay because everyone did quite well, but Maxwell thought that the girl with special needs on one of the opposing teams’ was her highlight.

“Getting to see everyone for the first time was really cool because a lot of the girls on our team have never swam before,” said Maxwell, “Also, there was a special needs girl that was swimming for the other team, and it was just really cool to see her swim and see how happy she was swimming.”

This being the first meet of the season leaves the team with ample time to fix what they struggle with and continue to strengthen what they’re already good at.  

Other people who placed first in events are Jhoerrence Inclang in the 100 breaststroke, Ellie Maxwell in the 100 breaststroke, Megan Percy in the 200 free, Jessica McKinnis in the 100 free, Elizabeth Skelly in the 200 free, Sydney Taylor in the 100 fly, and Nicole Webb in the 100 and 200 fly.

The next meet for the girls swim team is against FHN next Wednesday, Dec. 14.