BY ANNA MINTON (’17)

Fifteen members from both the boys’ and girls’ swimming teams will head to OSU for district competition this Friday and Saturday.

For the girls’ team, the qualifying swimmers are Sarah Martin, Alexa Specht, Kellie Lonzo, Avery Bednarski, Bailey Bradshaw and Brennah White. Alternates are Hannah Sturgeon, Carolyn Mestamaker and Sydney Bednarski.

For the boys’ team, the qualifying swimmers are Colin McDermott, Rowan Moore, Jesse Faler, Aaron Sargent, Tristan Mullins, Kevin Miller, Rick Duffus, Daniel Cowan and Logan Reese.

Over 20 schools will be participating from our district. According to sophomore Alexa Specht, about a quarter of the women’s’ team qualified, and about half of the men’s’ team qualified.

Specht will be competing with the rest of the girls’ team this Saturday, and will be swimming in the 100 backstroke, along with a couple other relays. She has been swimming since she was 7, but started competitively swimming 5 years ago.

“This means a lot to me because this is the first year we are Division 1, and it is much harder to qualify,” said Specht. “I worked hard for this, it was a big goal of mine.”

Specht notes that even though both teams lost many seniors last year, they haven’t lost their momentum.

“For the team, I think it’s a really good thing that so many swimmers have qualified, even though we moved up divisions because it shows that even though a bunch of seniors just graduated last year, that we’re still really good as a team,” Specht said. “We still have people that are talented and can qualify, and can gain us points.”

This is the first year that the girls’ team will be competing in Division 1. “To be in Division 1, its more competitive,” said Specht. “It’s tough, it’s not that easy. More of the guy’s team qualified, since they are still in Division 2.”

Photo courtesy of Joslyn Yost