After yet another week of grueling hour-long practices and a dry land workout, the AHS boys swim and dive team secured another victory, improving its record to 2-0 with an impressive 189-126 victory over South County on Dec. 9.
The girls team fell to 0-2 in the meet, losing by a score of 117-198. However, it showed tremendous improvement in the loss, besting its score from last year’s match-up.
“I think the girls did really well against South County,” junior Jenny Jessen said. “We weren’t really expected to win, nor end with a score anywhere near South County’s because of our performance against them last year and the amount of our swimmers who graduated, so we really exceeded expectations”.
The Atoms held their first meet on Dec. 2, when the boys team was able to squeak out a five-point victory over the Lake Braddock Bruins to defeat their long-time rival.
“We had some clutch races and amazing relays, which provided for a thrilling victory,” junior Stephen Oakes said.
“I was ecstatic, I almost erupted with joy,” senior Bernard Chalhub said.
“We looked at this meet sheet and compared our sophomores, juniors and seniors with theirs,” Head Coach Neal Jarvis said. “We could tell it was going to be a close meet based on that, but it came down to key swims by our B-team in the 400-yard freestyle relay [sophomores Juan
Carlos Clark and Michael Sgrecci, junior Dylan Gore and senior Robert Scheible], as well as the 200-yard freestyle relay [sophomore Travis Swann, juniors Andrew Boyd, Stephen Oakes, and senior William Bennett].”
“I cut seven seconds off of my 100-yard freestyle time,” senior Alec Montes de Oca said.
“I cut a lot of time in all of my events,” Gore said.
The stellar performance of the dive team was also influential in the victory. Atoms divers finished first, second and fourth out of the eight total divers from both teams.
“I feel that the dive team’s effort was very influential in the boys team’s defeat of Lake Braddock,” junior Clark Girardin said.
However, the girls team suffered a crushing loss at the hands of the Bruins by a score of 104-211. Despite the loss, there were some improved individual performances.
“I dropped four seconds in the 100-yard breaststroke and swam against Sophie Chase who is a [NCSA Junior] national champion,” sophomore Tricia Liller said.
The performance of the girls dive team left room for improvement heading into upcoming meets.
“We’ve improved a lot since the beginning of the year but we still need to improve more,” senior dive captain Jazmine Bounds said.
As the team prepares for their next two meets on Dec. 16 and 17 against perennial Patriot District contenders West Springfield and W.T. Woodson, it aims to maintain its steady improvement.
“I bet our practices will be pretty hard the week before the West Springfield and Woodson meets,” junior Harris Fitzgerel said. “But I think we stand a decent chance of beating them.”
“They’re the two best teams in the district,” Jarvis said. “You always want to see how you stack up against the best.”
