By Ben Cooper ’16

With the 2015-2016 swim season well underway, both the boys’ and the girls’ teams have shown promising results. The girls have started out the season in dominating fashion with a 4-0 record, through January 9th. The boys’ team has not been far behind, and is growing stronger as a team with each meet. The successful starts for both the boys and the girls can be attributed not only to talent, but also to the leadership of the captains: seniors Margarita Ryan, Morgan Hill, Colleen Kaufman and Danny Pletcher, as well as juniors Mateo Gomez and Cody Carlson.

Coach Brendan Lees chose these captains because they exhibited leadership qualities and set an example for the team. Responsibilities for the captains range from organizing spirit days before swim meets to leading the team in cheers. “One of the things high school is good for is making swimming fun while still being competitive. The captains are doing a good job of making it fun for everyone,” said Lees.

Many of the swimmers participate on a club team outside of school, making it difficult to balance attending the meets for school and club. However, the expectations for the boys’ and girls’ teams remain high after promising results last season.

Pletcher hopes to see the boys’ team build off of an important victory over Blake on December 19, while also improving on their weaknesses along the way. “Our team has the depth and ability to put strong swimmers in any event. We have made all of our meets competitive. An area for improvement would be getting key points in the relay races,” said Pletcher. “As a team, our goal is to place as high in the division as possible and place as many swimmers in the regional and state finals as we can”.

The boys’ team is very young and is looking to build off of last year’s performance, where they finished third overall in the division. The girls’ team is yet again considered to be a contender for a state championship after retaining many key swimmers that helped them finish second at states last year. The swim team’s next meet will be against Northwest on January 16.