Valley's swim team has been working extremely hard to perform the best they possibly can this season. Though the team is made up of a lot of new swimmers, there have been several exceedingly fast times produced by the athletes. Over the course of September, the Valley swim squad has been "flying," (or swimming a lot of butterfly) through 5 different meets, with the boys and girls achieving times that once seemed impossible for some of the newer athletes.  

On September 5th, the team had their first meet at Mountain McDowell Ranch Pool. This meet was a dual meet, meaning that the Valley swimmers only raced against two other schools. They battled the hot sun and tense nerves, as this was many of the swimmers' first time competing. However, both boys and girls teams represented Valley well with their performances and attitudes towards the other teams competing.  

When asked how she felt at the first meet of the season, senior Colby McCormick reflected, "I felt really confident in my abilities, and that meant that I was able to translate that into my events, which I got personal records in."  

The first meet kick-started the rest of the swim season, and the team raced in many other competitions after that. Sometimes this meant that the athletes had to race in one or two meets a week, which can be incredibly exhausting.  

This was the case with the meet on September 12th and the Croswhite Invitational on September 14th. Despite the meets being so close together, the swim team pulled through and put together one of their best performances yet.  

The Croswhite Invitational was particularly important for the swim squad because invitationals are the only times that athletes can qualify for state. To qualify, swimmers must beat a preliminary time in order to be considered. Not only that, but these competitions have about 20 schools competing at them, making them long, high-paced, and stressful.  

A few highlights from the Croswhite Invitational were Malachi Liknes (12) who achieved a provisional time in his 100 yard butterfly with a time of 1:07.55, and Rebecca Blum (12) who easily swam a provisional cut in her 100 yard backstroke with a time of 1:21.57.  

The invitational was followed by two more September dual meets on the 17th and 26th. These competitions were great chances for the swim athletes to improve their times and try out different events, as they were on smaller scales, meaning that they were less stressful for the swimmers. Overall, while the team didn't place high at these meets, many of their swimmers achieved PRs and got to swim in new events.  

The team will continue to compete throughout October in the hopes of winning some hardware at state this year.  

Come out and support your Trojan swimmers and go Trojans!