by Emma Shuster ‘18

The girls finished first and the boys finished fifth out of six teams at the Division II Swimming and Diving Championship on Saturday, February 4.
The Warriors swam well against tough teams. Sophomore Jamison Crow finished 4th in the Boys 100 yard butterfly and Boys 100 yard freestyle, sophomore Sophia Ryan finished 2nd in the Girls 100 yard backstroke, and junior Kennedy Nolan finished 4th in the Girls 100 yard butterfly. The Girls 400 yard freestyle relay, consisting of sophomore Kaitlin Gravell, Nolan, Ryan, and freshman Amanda Wenhold, won first place in the crucial final race that gave Sherwood the title over second-place Blair.

“Both the boys and girls had really tough competition at Divisionals. All of our hard work paid off. Our girls’ team has a lot of great swimmers and if everyone races really well, we have a shot of winning Metros,” said Nolan.

Metros is a meet that the best swimmers from both public and private high schools have attended for over 50 years. This year, it will be held at the Germantown Indoor Swim Center from February 8-11.

“To win Metros, we have to perfect our technique and make sure that our starts and finishes are the best they can be,” said captain Andrew Dunn.

This season has been very different compared to other seasons: three meets in a row got canceled because of weather conditions. These mishaps did not allow Coach Brendan Lees to see if his swimmers were improving or get their times.

Though it has been difficult to observe the team’s consistency, Lees and his swimmers believe they are on track. “Even though we have had lots of meet cancellations, we have been working really hard, especially at out of school practices and Sherwood practices. It is our goal to win Metros. We have some tough competition this year, but we are hoping for some amazing swims,” said Ryan.

The meet itself is run differently than the dual meets, lasting a few days and consisting of many different rounds. All participants must meet or beat the time standards. Swimmers are permitted to swim four individual events as well as two relays. Teams may enter a maximum of four swimmers in an individual event and one team per relay. Only the top 16 swimmers reach prelims and finals. Team trophies will be granted to the boys and girls teams with the highest amassed scores.

Sherwood swimmers are determined to work hard each day, ensuring they have effective practices and working on all aspects of their strokes, turns, and starts. If practices run smoothly, it can result in good things when it comes time to race.

Having the best swimmers compete against each other within three days excites the swimmers because they also get to compete against private schools. “The fact that the swimmers only from the Sherwood community were able to win this meet last year was huge. And we’ll get to see if we can do it again this year!”said Lees.