Swim & Dive beats Barons

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. INDOOR SWIM CENTER, JAN. 28–

Blair's swim and dive team (1-4) defeated Bethesda Chevy-Chase this Saturday by a combined score of 173-169. The meet served as a replacement for the meet that was cancelled last week due to snow. The boys' team was able to secure a solid win with a score of 102-69, while the girls' fell to the Barons, 104-67. Saturday's senior meet saw many Blair swimmers broke their own personal records.

Freshman Brian Tsau broke a Blair record in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:41:27. Senior Lenna Castro also stood out during the meet with personal bests in everything she swam. Senior co-captain Elsa Dupre was very proud of these two swimmers in particular. "Lenna's goal was to qualify for Metros and she qualified today,” Dupre said of her teammate.

The girls were not discouraged by the loss because they were happy to win the overall meet. Dupre sees the girls' loss as motivation to work harder for the next meet. "It's hard to get back after a week off," she said. "We need to continue to practice."

Co-coach David Swaney was ultimately proud of the team, especially the seniors. "The seniors swam well and had a good day. They were able to swim in fun events,” Swaney said. Senior Hannah Buchek, girls' dive captain, was also pleased with the performance of the team. "Today we were up against tough opponents and we did really well, especially our boys' team,” Buchek said. She also noted that many swimmers tried out new strokes in Saturday's meet.

With divisionals up next, the swim and dive team is optimistic about their chances. "Divisionals is going to be a tough meet, but today we were successful so I think we'll perform well,” Dupre said. Swaney wants to work on improving the team's health so that his swimmers will be able to perform their best for divisionals. "We all have to be healthy. They are all tired now from practicing hard, and we need to make sure we are not torn down by the next meet,” he said.

Swaney is confident about how the team will perform for the rest of the season. "I'm looking forward to our surprisingly fast swims at the end of the season,” Swaney said. "I think we're faster than people realize.”

Swim & Dive's next meet, the Division 1 championship, will be held on Saturday, Feb. 4 at the Germantown indoor swim center at 7:30 a.m.