Varsity girls swimming takes down Trojans
Hannah Leyba (10) prepares to take off into a dive as her fellow teammates sit around the divers for support. She placed second in the diving portion of the meet.
December 9, 2013
With a victorious finish, the girls varsity swimming and diving team faced the Highland Trojans at home on Thursday, Dec. 5, claiming the win with a final score of 141-42.
“I swam the 50 [meter] freestyle, the 100 [meter] backstroke, the 200 [meter] freestyle relay and the 400 [meter] freestyle relay. Overall I did pretty well, our relay finished second and I finished first in the 100 [meter] backstroke,” Kaitlyn Krachenfels (11) said.
The girls claimed their triple-digit winning score not through luck, but through their seemingly endless hours of practices, morning and afternoon, and strong faith in one another as competitors.
“We are a very strong team that works together and pushes each other to do our best. We need to work on beating our biggest competition in our upcoming meets,” Krachenfels said.
Against strong teams like Munster and Penn, the team is rising superstars, such as diver Kallie Higgins (9), who have the scoring potential to led the team to wins against powerhouse schools.
“I believe that my scores directly reflect the amount of time I spend practicing at the pool. In the last year I have only had a total of 2 weeks off from practice when you include club diving. It feels great that all this hard work and dedication to the sport has really paid off even though I am just a freshman,” Higgins said.
Higgins earned first place individually with a final score of 207, winning over all Highland competitors and fellow teammates Hannah Leyba (10) and Abigail Prince (12).
“My main goal for high school is to make it to the State meet my freshman year and to place on the podium, although first place would be the icing on the cake. Another goal of mine is to score high enough to put my name up on the record boards. The only way to achieve these goals is to continue to practice, practice, practice,” Higgins said.
The varsity girls have their next meet on Dec. 10 at Merrillville High School, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
