Excited to swim against a team that Niles West is familiar with, the girls’ swim team faced off against their adversaries from Niles North last Friday, Sept. 29. In the end varsity lost the meet, but JV ended up narrowly winning.

For many sports, the environment is very intense, and somewhat nervous throughout meets. However, if you go watch one of the girls’ meets, you immediately experience the opposite. Swimmers are cheering each other on, from both teams, and everybody is simply having a good time. 

“The environment is fun, it gets people excited, and it helps everyone’s mentality while swimming,” senior Abby Lopez said. Playing competitive sports can be rather stressful, and messing up not only can affect your team but can also affect the entire meet. The girls, however, do a great job by making each other feel comfortable, in and out of the water. 

In many other sports, North and West have intense rivalries and rarely do the athletes want to be associated with each other. Fights have broken out in West vs. North football games, and there is an abundance of trash-talking in pretty much every other event involving these two rival schools. Despite this, the girls from West were kind to their opponents, and their teammates.  Swimmers from both teams alike were talking, laughing, and even taking pictures together. 

“I think the outside friendships and the closeness of the schools really help the up-beat dynamic of this meet,”  junior, Katerina Raycheva said. When you have to swim while being nervous and uncomfortable, oftentimes, you get in your head and end up underperforming. For many people, being comfortable at a meet can help improve their performance. 

Fun and games aside, a meet is still a competition where swimmers and coaches want to get better as a whole. No matter who wins the competition, swimmers still need to reflect on their performances to grow. 

“I think the meet went really well, we came into it with really high spirits and lots of excitement…I hope we carry on these high spirits as we near the end of the season …We have a great dynamic on the team this year, we are lifting each other up and supporting each other throughout each meet and practice,” senior, Mya Iusco said. 

Keeping the momentum going throughout the season is very important. Without passion and drive to win, success is very unlikely. If the girls keep up with their current attitude and continue to support each other, no matter how they finish the season everybody will definitely improve.