During the month of October, the Trojan swimmers continued to put forth an outstanding effort. The team participated in four meets, two dual meets and two invitationals.
The team's first October meet took place in Florence. Even though it was a long trip there, the swim athletes performed exceptionally well, many swimmers achieving personal records in their events. This provided a confidence boost for the next few meets, which were invitationals.
The first invitational to take place was the Charger Invitational at McClintock Pool. Due to the number of participating schools, the competition was very long, running from about 8am to 3pm. These meets are often very challenging, but the Trojans overcame all obstacles and pulled through.
Some individual personal records from the Charger Invitational included sophomore Tegan Kordell with a 2:56.27 individual medley time, junior Brayden Stuber with a 29.82 50 yard freestyle time, and freshman Eli Ross, who dropped an astounding 7 seconds in his 100 yard freestyle swim with a time of 1:04.49.
Rebecca Blum (12) was asked how she felt about the Charger Invitational, and she stated, "I felt like the pool was a fast pool, which helped me improve my times. Even though the meet itself was long, I still performed well, which was encouraging."
After the Charger Invitational, the team was thrown into another invitational, the Small Schools Championships. This meant that the swimmers didn't get a lot of rest in between their meets, but that didn't stop them from qualifying for state. The girls medley relay, which consisted of Layla Heller (12), Marissa Raber (10), Tegan Kordell (10), and Colby McCormick (12) swam particularly well, achieving a time of 2:19.30. On the boys side, Liam Haake (10), Brayen Stuber (11), Malachi Liknes (12), and Eli Ross (9) all qualified for state with a time of 2:04.43.
After that outstanding performance, the team then moved on to their last dual meet of the season, which took place against Gilbert Classical. This was a great last meet for the team, as they got one last chance to gain personal records before state, all while bonding together.
Overall, the month of October was full of competitions for the Valley swimmers, and they truly showed the other schools what they were made of. Not only had the team swam their events well, but they also modeled Jesus to the other schools. Often after a race, the swimmers could be seen congratulating their competition in the lanes next to them, which truly demonstrated that the Trojans represent Jesus well during their races.
The Trojans will participate at State on November 8-9 at PCDS. Make sure to come out and be loud!
