In their final regular meet of the season, the AHS swim and dive team will take on the Lake Braddock Bruins. The competition is now fiercer than ever, as the Atoms have lost one diver, two top swimmers and four key incoming freshmen to the Bruins due to the recent boundary change.
The change, put into effect this year, moved students from the Ravensworth neighborhood out of AHS and into Lake Braddock. For the team, this means that they will face off against their former teammates. Old friends will become foes on Jan. 21 at Lee District Rec Center.
“I’m a little nervous about swimming against Jackson Hannam because he was our top breaststroker and now he’s on the Lake Braddock team,” sophomore Stephen Oakes said. Hannam, along with Kevin Romero, are the two juniors who have had to split their high school swim careers between schools.
“I’m actually pretty excited to swim against AHS. It’ll be fun swimming against some of my buddies,” Romero said.
“Jackson and Kevin were really good breaststrokers with us last year,” senior Lauren Barnard said. While some consider this situation to be detrimental, others see it as a positive.
‘‘We know what they can swim, we know some of their times, so we can beat them,” junior Adam Wattenbarger said. Head Coach Neil Jarvis supported this by saying that the coaches already have an idea of other swimmers’ abilities regardless of their team.
“In swimming, after every meet, we [the coaches] exchange meet sheets. It’s not really an advantage [to know Hannam and Romero’s abilities] because everything is kind of open,” Jarvis said.
“I’m excited to swim against Jackson and Kevin and I think it’ll be fun for the boys to swim against their old teammates,” junior Alli Foster said.
The Lake Braddock swim and dive team has been one of AHS’s top rivals for the past several years. Their girls team is in the top ten in the state, and their boys team is within the top 15. However, the boys team beat Lake Braddock last year and is confident that they can repeat their success in the upcoming meet.
“I think the boys team has a really good chance this year and they will definitely win,” Foster said.
“The dive team is going to crush them. Last year we practiced with them so we got to know some of the people,” sophomore Paul Helfgott said.
With this being the last meet before districts, many swimmers want to step it up and swim their hardest in order to qualify for regionals.
“We’ve practiced hard so the only thing we can do is go out there and give it all we got,” freshman Elizabeth Manthos said.
On top of all this, the meet is also the last one for seniors on the team.
“I’m really excited for this meet because it’s senior night and I’m a senior,” Barnard said.
This upcoming meet promises to be intense, and the AHS swim and dive team is ready for the challenge.
“We have a chance to win it if we do our best,” Wattenbarger said.
With the rivalry, the promise of familiar faces and the anticipation Senior Night brings, Lee District Rec Center is sure to be filled with excitement when AHS takes on Lake Braddock.
“It’s going to be a close meet,” sophomore Joe Rolen said.
