Girls Swim and Dive Floats Above the Competition

The Masuk girls swim and dive team blew it out of the water at the Friday evening swim meet. Marking their second win of the season the final score was Masuk 94 – Joel Barlow 83. 

Though last season was a rough one, the team is bigger and better this year, junior Yara Shaik explained, “We went from a barely twenty girl team to thirty-four. Last year was not a great season for us but now this year we’ve been winning and we are 50-50. I guess everything has been improving. We just need to work on getting those times down and just work harder.”

Coach Emily Demance explained,“We lost to Barlow last year so this is a really great win for us and great for the team’s morale.”

Now that the team is 2-2, they are hoping to keep improving and working on getting their times down to prepare for SWCs and states. 

Coach Demace remarked, “We mostly need to clean up the little things it’s all the little things that just add up: streamlines, fly kicks off the wall, relay starts, safety relays, but it’s just all small stuff that’s an easy fix” 

Many swimmers on the team are already going to SWCs and States and Demace suspects that there will be more that qualify after yesterday’s meet.

Masuk’s swimmers came out on top for many events such as Eva Helmke, Yara Shaik, Lucia Morales, and Juliette Eaton who won first place in the 200 Medley Relay. Helmke also finished first for the 50 free, and Eaton won a seasonal best for the 200 IM. As for the diving portion of the meet, Kate Wittenauer achieved first place with a time of 202.05. 

Juliette Eaton, Eva Helmke, Kate Wittenauer, and Carrie Wittenauer are all captains of the team and are great leaders. Coach Demace stated, “my captains tend to keep everyone in line especially when the computer decides not to work…they kind of keep things running” 

The team is a very close-knit community that supports and encourages one another and that was very evident at the meet and positively influences their performances. Additionally, this positivity has allowed for notable improvement. 

Senior Kate Wittenauer shared, “All of us have been working so hard during practice and throughout the meets, we’ve been really pushing hard trying to bring down those times and we’ve all been putting 110% into it and it shows.”

It is evident that the team has done a great deal to improve their times and work towards achieving SWC and State titles. We hope for a great rest of the season and even more improvement from the swimmers.