Racing against the other NEISD and some district teams, the aquatics team swam and conquered last Saturday at Palo Alto College for their first meet of the year. This intro meet didn’t track scores or give rewards, but it did show the other teams how skilled MacArthur Aquatics are, and gave the swimmers a glimpse of their progress so far and how they can make improvements.“If you ever, at all, have the chance to go to a meet, or even be on the team do so,” Audrey Hankins(10) said, “Its a really fun experience.”Hankins as well as other MacArthur swim team members put forth a lot of effort. She has to give up things such as her normal diet and free time to focus on getting better and improving, but these adaptations don’t come without personal satisfaction at a job well done.“Overall we get rewarded, by ourselves, knowing that we improve with every practice,” Hankins said.Not only is there physical preparation though, Hankins also spends time trying to mentally prepare herself for her competition as well. Envisioning her goals and relaxing before meets help her in races.“Usually before I swim, I get real calm and think about how my race will go,” Hankins said, “I visualize myself getting on the block and swimming to the best of my ability, and all while I get a set time in my head. After I swim an event and see that the time I actually got is near or close to what i visualized really makes it worth it.”
Hankins isn’t the only swim team member who enjoys the payoff of hard work and the swim meets.
“I love swim meets,” Bella Garza(10) said,” They are a lot of fun.”
While competition happens to be an important to improving and getting better, it also happens to be one of Garza’s favorite aspect of swim meets. To ensure that she and her teammates do good against the competition though, exertion is required on her part to get herself ready.
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“We get to the pool at like 6:30 a.m.” Garza said, ”after we get settled, we warm up, race, warm down, and repeat until we have finished all our races.”
The next swim meet points will be counted and tallied up with the top 8 finishers in each event receiving points until eventually at the end ribbons are given out to the eight swimmers with the most points.
“First place gets a 1st place ribbon, second place gets a 2nd place ribbon, and so on,” Garza said.
Saturday Oct. 13, the next swim meet will be held at Blossom Athletic Center.
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