They fasten their goggles and put on their caps.  The swimmers step up onto the block. Anticipating for the announcer to say “Take your mark.” The timer beeps and the swimmers take off. 

The Highlands High School Swim team recently just finished the 21-22 swim season. 

This season’s training began at the beginning of October as the birds started to prepare for their first meet on Saturday, December 18. 

“Into the season I was really excited about it being my senior year. I didn’t really know what to expect since we lost a lot of seniors. But I was excited to see what would happen,” said Senior Lucy Willis.

During Christmas break, the team had two meets. The first meet was on December 19, 2021. At that meet, the boys’ team placed first for the fourth consecutive year in a row, the girls’ team placed fourth and combined the teams placed second. 

For their second meet, they went to Louisville for a tri-meet. The teams competing consisted of Highlands, Assumption, and Trinity. 

After this meet was freshman regionals. This is for newer swimmers to get experience at meets. 

Then, came regionals for the swimmers. The team did well but not as well as in previous years. 

Although, Freshman Sarah Jones broke the school record. The original record was 59.65. But Jones beat the record by 0.30 seconds, swimming a 59.35.  

At the end of the year, the team went to state. At state, one of the relays consisted of Eighth-Grader Ragan Moore, Jones, Junior Belle Bryant, and Willis placed 14th in the 400-yard freestyle. 

At the KHSAA state swim meet, another accolade was accounted for by the eighth-grader. Moore placed 16th overall at state. She was the only girl from the Highlands team that placed in an individual event.

For the boys’ team, they placed 10th overall, Senior Sam Jones leading the team by placing eighth in the 200m freestyle. This race placed him in the top 10. 

With losing valuable seniors this year, next year’s team will have to step up their game. 

“Start fast, be fast, end fast. Always support each other because, in the end, it’s your teammates who are going to support you. It’s okay to be mad but also to turn it around in the end and have fun,” said Willis.