The AquaKats team grows every year as the date of district slowly creeps along the corner. Their first swim meet granted them an amazing start to the season against Oak Ridge High School 

Opportunities in meets help the team flourish in growth, occurring every time the swimmers touch the water, hoping to gain themselves a place in the district and eventually regionals. 

“I feel like swimming at the NAT helps me gain confidence whenever I’m swimming,” sophomore Aaron Barker said. “It gives that motivation to keep working and keep working hard to make it to regionals and advance to state.”

Advancements and improvements are something that every athlete prays to achieve, a finish line of hard work will allow them to meet set goals.

“My performance will help us advance to regionals because it’s a faster pool and has better-starting blocks,” junior Briggs Cesan Said. “Relays are also faster there, and we have a better shot at breaking the medley record this year.”

The joy of being in a swim allows for a different type of bond among your teammates, having the chance to be a part of something big.

“I choose swim as my sport also because I’ve been doing it for a while now,” Cesan said. “And because I knew the coach (Coach Fossmo) and people that were on the team prior to me coming to high school.”

The love for the sport from childhood experiences adds to the overall effect that helps our swim team strive to get better at what they do.

“My parents put me in swim lessons when I was two, due to us living in Arizona where everyone had a pool. My parents put me in swim lessons as a precaution, thinking if I went over to a friend’s house and fell in the pool, I would be able to swim,” senior Rylee Rick said. “I fell in love with swimming and kept at the lessons. I never wanted to quit, so I kept training and advancing. I eventually joined a club team that gave me the proper training to excel at high school. So, if it was not for my parents I would have never become a swimmer.“

But for others, this meant a chance for an opportunity bigger than high school itself.

“I was really good at it at a young age, and I put all my life’s work into it,” Barker said. “I feel so capable of making it to the next level and getting scholarships.”

With the overall success of the Aquakats, there is always room for improvement and steps to be at your prime while you’re swimming. 

“To become a better swimmer, I will just try to focus more on refining small details of actual training in the pool and becoming stronger in the gym,” Briggs said. “As I’ve seen, improving strength in the gym and working harder in practice together help me progress the fastest.”