Varsity swimmers raced against Chesterton’s varsity teams in the first meet to be held in LC’s new aquatic center Tuesday night. Though both the boys and the girls teams swam well in the new pool, they suffered a loss to Chesterton’s teams with a score of 127 to 59 for the girls and 135 to 51 for the boys.

“We benefited [from the use of the new pool] because it’s something new. We swam very well tonight. Our goal was to hop in and swim our best,” Jeff Kilinski, boys head coach, said.

As the teams approach their championship seasons, utilizing the new facility proves to be of great importance to the competition.

“Chesterton is a fast team. It was a good meet to start with [in the new pool]. This meet served as a test meet for upcoming meets because there’s a month until the championship season with Conference, Sectionals and State,” Abigail Homans, girls assistant coach, said.

The new pool provided for a competitive atmosphere which benefited Holly Spears (12) in the 100-meter freestyle and Connor Homans (11), Matthew Applegate (11), Joshua Barajas (11) and Gavin Basile (11) in the 200-meter medley and 200-meter freestyle relays. Spears placed first in the 100-meter freestyle, and the boys placed second in both relays.

“The new pool helped; the blocks are like a track start. This meet was good competition and it helped us push,” Spears.

The varsity girls’ next meet will be Saturday, Jan. 18, for the Duneland Athletic Conference at LaPorte, and the varsity boys’ next meet will be Thursday, Jan. 16 at Michigan City.