Girls’ Swim Team Works Toward Repeat State Title

Junior Marston Fries thinks about it every day. Whether it’s during an intense swim workout or as she spaces off in class, one thing is always on her mind. Rarely does the girls’ swim and dive team sit down and discuss last year’s state championship, but all the girls have consistently kept one goal in mind this season: going for the repeat.

One week after last year’s state victory, head coach Rob Cole began to look towards this year’s swim season by going over the state meet’s times, new freshman and checking to see who would graduate from surrounding schools. This season, the girls know they can attain the goal of winning the state title. After last year’s success, they’ve learned they have to try their hardest in every practice, cooperate as a team and keep a positive attitude.

“We have to be really stepping up our game because it’s not like we’re the ones chasing other teams to win,” senior Katy Richardson said. “We’re not really the underdogs anymore.”

Practices are thoughtfully planned out so that the girls peak later in the season and make state qualifying times. But before the girls can contend to win another state title, they all need to drop time in their events and work on speed in all of their races.

One thing senior Emily Fuson pinpoints as room for improvement is their preliminary races, which come on the first day of a two-day meet. If more swimmers do well in prelims on the first day, then that gives the team more of a chance for swimmers to place in finals on the second day.

“Usually, as a team, we swim really well the second day as opposed to swimming well on both days,” Fuson said. “I think it’s more of a mindset because by that point we have the yardage we need. Rob gives us everything we need to be able to swim to our highest ability.”

In years past, state wasn’t something the team ever really discussed. Doing well at state was something that was always in the back of the swimmers’ minds but rarely spoken about. Since last year’s win, the topic has become much more open to discussion.

“We’ve definitely been talking about it a lot more this year and our coach has been bringing it up more than we have,” senior Dana Sherard said. “I think that’s just kind of a driving force in the back of our heads like, ‘Okay, we really need to do this because we could win state.”

Since the team knows they have what it takes to win the state title again, Fuson said they have been putting more pressure on themselves and on each other. She thinks that Cole is putting less pressure on the team and it is mostly the girls that are stressing the importance of state. Fuson says everyone has their own role on the team. Fuson and Sherard both yell out to girls who stop on the side and tell them to keep swimming and encourage them to finish the set.

As a senior, Richardson says she does not feel any more pressure to do well than she normally would feel. She says that she puts pressure on herself to do well every season because she knows those points count towards the team winning the meet.

Cole believes that this year’s group of five senior captains is a closer group of girls. He thinks they are not less focused but just actually have fun participating in swimming together.

This season, the senior captains have created a good balance of seriousness for the sport while still having fun, sophomore Riley Hunter said. Through the tough pool workouts, weight lifting sessions and dry-land exercises, the team manages to keep a laid back atmosphere.

“You kind of have to make things fun in swimming because it’s so awful,” Fuson said. “The sets get harder and harder as the season goes on. As the weather gets nicer, we want to be outside more, so it’s awful having to be in the pool and it’s really bad ventilation. We did 8 100’s on the 1:10 [pace]. That’s really fast, like touch and go.”

Being a leader on the team has been something the captains have had to learn how to perfect. The girls have tried to lead by example and show the underclassmen how to become dedicated swimmers.

“If you sit out, [the underclassmen] think it’s okay to sit out and if you don’t put your 100 percent work effort in, they think that they can just slack off,” Richardson said. “So it’s just been learning how to be a role model even when you don’t think people are watching.”

As one of the youngest members of the team, freshman Ellie Waugh says she looks up to the upperclassmen. She sees their determination to win individual events and to win state as a team and thinks that it leads to good positive energy.

“It is kind of intimidating to be one of the youngest out of the group but it’s also very encouraging because you know you have so many older people that are supporting you and always being positive,” Waugh said. “They’re just carrying on what they know from when they were freshmen.”

Overall, the girls believe the team meshes well together and gets along great whether it be in or out of the pool. Though the five senior captains are not all in the same group of friends outside of swimming, they all make time to hang out. Fuson said during the summer they all go out to eat ice cream or meet up at Starbucks to talk.

“We’ve all become such good friends because we spend hours and hours together,” Fuson said. “We practice three hours a day, then on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon, so we just spend so much time together.”

So far this season, the team has participated in four meets, including one in Wichita with 21 other teams. East has won all four meets. Rather than squeaking out victories, the Lancers have dominated the meets, proving to the rest of the state they are someone to look out for this year.

All the swimmers remember last season and how it felt to be the best swimmers in the state. The swimmers, like Fries, envision themselves fixing things like their flip turns, streamlines and stroke technique. These little things will be what help the team repeat their state win this season.

Photo illustration by Grant Heinlein and Eden Schoofs.