BY ANNALYNN WINTERS
The lady Saints swimming and diving team started their season off on the right foot with a win last Saturday, beating Skidmore 162-132. The Saints have an optimistic outlook on the year and are ready to compete.
The women’s team has continued with tradition team bonding routines, including Big/Little gift giving, movies, team dinners, and extra activities on the weekends. Although the team is broken up into smaller groups during practices, Molly Lunn ’12 states that the team dynamics are great. “We always eat together, guys and girls. We take up a big table at Dana and are always the last team to leave,” Lunn said.
The team also takes an annual trip to Puerto Rico. It is not only a fun trip, but also provides the team with constructive training and additional team bonding. The girls make their way to La Universidad de Puerto Rico, where the team trains extensively, practicing 15 times in 10 days. The girls participate in two-a-day practices most days but are also allotted time off, in addition to days with a single practice. The traditional Puerto Rico trip always allows the girls to have a great dinner in San Juan and enjoy each other’s company, resulting in great team chemistry.
The team has changed substantially since Molly Lunn’s freshmen season. This season they have gotten a lot more girls to participate. Molly explained that during her freshmen year there was a lot of drama in and out of the locker room due to negative competition among team members. Now, however, if a team member does well, everyone rushes in for congratulations, and there is a lot of support on the team this season.
The biggest obstacles for the team this year will be to incorporate and connect with all of the new swimmers on the team. The team is evenly balanced with nine new first-year students as well as nine returning swimmers. In order to keep the freshmen motivated, the team will have to stay positive all the time, by reinforcing the team’s goals and not lettimg the season seem like it is getting too long. The returning swimmers need to let the new girls know that the hurt they feel in mid season is a good hurt, and you need to push through it to accomplish the goals and make it to states.
When asked about the attendance of the student body; Molly said, “People should really come to our meets. They are really fun!” “Diving is probably the most exciting part of the meet for most fans. They like to see the flips and twists in the air.” said Chasity Barcomb ‘12. In whatever capacity you go to watch, the team encourages everyone to come out and support the team both in swimming as well as diving.
