After preparing for months and completing a successful season, the swim team competed at the UIL district meet on Jan. 25 and 26 at the Bruce Eubanks Natatorium. Many students qualified for the regional competition, which will take place on Feb. 9 and 10, also held at the Bruce Eubanks Natatorium.
“The meet went very well,” Swim Coach Andrew Stewart said. “We had 24 PRs [personal records], three individuals advancing to Regionals, and four relays advancing.”
While the swim team had many advance to regionals, sophomore Audrey Szeto was the only diver to compete for Frisco at the district meet — and will again be the only diver to represent the raccoons at the regional meet.
“Leading up to districts, I finalized the list of 11 dives I was going to compete and focused on improving each and every one of them until the meet,” Szeto said. “ I train for districts all season long, but it intensifies about a month before.”
One of the things that made the district meet special to Szeto this year was competing at a higher level and being surrounded by other divers who were also trying new things.
“Districts is the meet everyone gets to compete in to try and qualify for regionals,” Szeto said. “This means that a lot of people are throwing dives that they are scared of, and it’s so fun and amazing to be a part of the supportive environment.”
Szeto was able to experiment with her dives for the first time, all the while feeling the support of her team.
“In fact, I competed a new dive, and it felt so good to come up from the water to hear the cheers of my teammates,” Szeto said.
Szeto has many dives she uses. At especially tough meets, she has a preparation method as she approaches the board to dive.
“If I am about to perform a dive I am nervous about, I take my time, break the dive down and think about the things I need to do in order for it to be successful,” Szeto said. “I am also reassuring myself that whatever happens, it will be okay in the end.”
Now, Szeto will use the same methods to prepare for the regional meet, which will be a tougher competition.
“Up until regionals, I will be doing the same thing I have been doing leading up to districts — getting a lot of reps in and improving my dives,” Szeto said.
Szeto’s teammate, junior swimmer Julianne Armstrong, competed in the 200 freestyle, 500 freestyle, 200 freestyle relay and 500 freestyle relay. Like Szeto, she was excited to race for a spot at the regional meet.
“Districts is always my favorite meet of the year because everyone on the team gets to go,” Armstrong said. “It’s just the end-of-the-season meet so everyone is really excited and ready to show all the work that they put in throughout the season.”
Armstrong placed first in the 200 freestyle and second in 500 freestyle. She first took a moment to relax before continuing to train, with hopes of achieving similar success at regionals.
“We’ve been training these past two weeks for regionals and our coach has been resting us so that way we are ready to drop time in all our events,” Armstrong said. “I’m hoping that I qualify for state in my individual events and that my relays qualify for state as well.”
Like Armstrong, many swimmers had a chance to hone in their skills and train slightly differently than before for the regional meet.
“The swimmers who only qualified in some, but not all, of their district events will be able to specialize and focus on just one or two events,” Stewart said.
As the season comes close to the end, Stewart is determined the team will achieve greatness and bring home a win for the school.
“Plans for the rest of the season?,” Stewart said. “Crush it at Regionals, prep for State, crush it at State, then go into off-season and start prepping for next year.”