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Junior Brittany Adams performs a butterfly stroke at a recent swim meet.

Halfway through their season, the swim team has learned to adjust to whatever is thrown their way. From new coach Robert Blashill to a young roster, the team has seen it all. In their most recent meet, the team finished third on Dec. 21, behind Kettle Run and Millbrook.
“Starting a new job is always a challenge–learning new traditions and incorporating my own coaching style,” coach Robert Blashill said. “Our athletes have risen to the occasion.They’re cooperative, open minded about learning, and very coachable. We will definitely have some swimmers qualify for regionals, and hopefully some will qualify for states.”
According to Blashill, sophomore Jake Boulter is close to qualifying for states in the 100 fly with a time of 58.9 seconds, just shy of the 57.4 second state cut time.
During the post season swim, all team members are eligible for the district competition, but only the top five from districts advance to the regional level. Swimmers can either advance to states by being in the top five at regionals, or beating a state time. According to Blashill however, the team is still working towards their playoff goal.
“We will never be done working on everything we need to work on,” Blashill said. “Endurance is a big part of the program.”
This year, the team fields only four seniors, which, according to junior Amanda Bengston, has required some adjustment.
“We have a really young team,” Bengston said. “But we have really strong underclassmen which will help us next season.”
In addition, there are only seven boys on the team. According to junior Sam Henson, the boys team can be affected by one swimmer’s weak performance.
“We can only have one relay team,” Henson said. “So even if we win our race, we may not win overall because other teams have more relay teams.”