The moment that the Spartan swim and dive team has been anticipating has finally come and gone. The first meet of the year.

On Dec. 5, Francis Howell Central went head to head against defending GAC champions, Fort Zumwalt West.

Last time these two teams met, the spartans didn’t fare too well losing by almost 49 points. This time however, the Spartans put up 30 more points to post a score of 82 to Zumwalt’s 101. Even though the Spartans took a loss they were ecstatic at putting up so many more points than the previous year.

With the numerous amount of lower classmen on the team this year, there were some doubts about how they would fare against schools such as Francis Howell High and Fort Zumwalt West. For Coach Jessica Nettles, these questions were not any where in her mind.

“No huge surprises, I’m pleased to see the freshman doing so well and working so hard, the sophomores are taking on a bigger leadership role then they had last year by making up over half the team,” said Nettles.

Huge improvements on the off days have the team hopeful towards the upcoming events and making state finals.

“Our divers will become more prepared for the upcoming events because we only had one diver competing on Wednesday and we are really hoping to have some of our relays make it to state this year,” Nettles said.

The Spartans next meet is on Dec. 10, until then, the girls will be practicing hard to improve on their own skill sets. The FZW meet for some girls was a learning experience.

“I am a flyer so I do the butterfly the majority of the time, i really want to improve my technique and my relays, even though there will always be things to improve on right now those are the two main practice factors for me,” said sophomore Marissa DiSalvo.

For the veteran swimmers, this first meet is a great place to find out how the younger girls are going to react to how they did. Some take bad placements with big strides and look at them as something, they should be proud of.

“I felt like i did good even though I came in last place, I dropped seconds which matter the most to me,” said DiSalvo.

Luckily for the team they have a few days before their next meet to get ready to go and put on the show that they know they can display. If you’d like you can go out and support them at the Rec-Plex, Dec. 10, 8:30 pm, when they take on Timberland and Holt.