This season has been nothing but laughs and fun for the AHS swim and dive team. The varsity boys managed a 5-2 season and the girls a 2-5. “The boys did pretty well and the girls didn’t do so great but we had a lot of fun anyways,” said girls co-captain, Ellie Holcombe. “I felt like we performed well,” said senior Kayvon Naghdi.

At practice, the swimmers would work very hard to achieve the best scores possible at their weekly meets. First, the team has stretching and warm ups, followed by 2500-3000 yards of swimming, which is equivalent to two to two and a half miles. “Coach Jarvis worked us really hard this year and even though practices were tough, it all paid off in the end,” said Holcombe.

A portion of the team will be moving on to regionals where they will compete against all the other teams in the area. Individuals or relays with state qualifying times or who get placed in a certain spot will then move onto states. “It took a lot of hard practice and work to qualify for regionals,” said sophomore Willie Labarca.

On his thoughts of the season Coach Neal Jarvis said, “We had a very successful season; we had 85 percent best time in the district meet and we are trying to qualify as many athletes as possible into the state meet. The AHS swim and dive team is widely known for their great atoms spirit. Rude awakening, running on Saturday mornings all winter and wearing bikinis over swimsuits at practice were some of the crazy bonding activities the team shared.

“I will always remember rude awakening when the other seniors came and made me dress in ridiculous clothes,” said senior Sam Sofge. Additionally, the AHS swim team is the only team who dyes their hair for districts. Traditionally, boys to dye their hair blonde and girls dye their hair red.

“We always cheer and dye our hair, it’s a lot of fun because it brings our team together,” said Holcombe.

Many members of the team felt as if they were one family rather than a group of athletes who are trying to win. “We all are really close and all are friends, we are like one big happy family,” said junior Katie Panther.

The team has worked extremely hard this season with many athletes continuing on to compete in regionals. “It just went by so fast, I wish it was longer,” said Jarvis about his feelings about the season ending. “I feel like some of the athletes were just getting a good time and I wish I just had one more month.” Clearly, the members of the AHS swim and dive team valued their roles as teammates just as much as fierce competitors.