The swim team works hard for their amazing achievements

A congratulations is in order for the Junior Varsity swim team who went to the championships. Girls resulted in a 6-3 season and boys a 3-6 season. At conference the girls team came in third while boys came in fourth. In addition, numerous students will be progressing to districts. Through hard work and dedication, the swim team has continued to impress and achieve these results.

In an email sent to the team by Coach Marlow, it is evident how important these achievements are, not just to the team, but to Aurora High School:

“Hello! First off I want to say congratulations to the swimmers who attended and swam at the JV championships this weekend. We had 3 swimmers place on the podium (Andy Ploskunak in the 500, Gabby Elsas in the 100 back, and Catherine Victor/Gabby Elsas/ Brooklyn Duguay/ Avery Hendl in the 400 freestyle relay all with 8th place!). We saw a lot of season and personal bests this weekend which set us off on the right foot for a fast week ahead of us!"

So, how are such impressive placements achieved? Clearly an incredible amount of hard work is put in, but what does the typical practice of an Aurora swimmer look like? Team member Claire Schiopota explains exactly what it is like:

“We have a meet warm up before every meet; it's a 300 swim, 200 kick, 100 im drill, 200 swim, 4x50s drill/swim, and 8x25s v-speeds. This is swim lingo so simply put, we have a half hour warm up which includes sprints, kicks, and drills. A 25 is equal to one lap. Right now, we're in taper season (two weeks long) which means the practices get increasingly easier as we prepare for a big meet. The JV swimmers already tapered and it's only varsity in the pool for this last week. Previous to this, we have a lot of hard practices which includes pull sets, kick sets, distance sets, sprint sets, breathing sets, stroke sets, and many more which work us hard in different ways to make us better swimmers.”

And the physical strain is not the only challenge to being a competitive swimmer. Swimming is also a time commitment with the half hour ride to and from the pool, the half hour to change, and then the rigorous practice from six to eight. However, it is all worth it in the end.

To conclude, Schiopota writes this sentiment regarding the value of the Aurora swim team: “We work super hard, but we're all really close and over the years they've become like a family to me. We aren't to be overlooked and we hope to win conference next year. If you want to join then learn the stroke and get ready to work hard!”