In 2008 all eyes were on Michael Phelps as he swam his way to eight Olympic gold medals and did his country proud. This year many Westminster students jumped on the swimming bandwagon. These athletes are in the pool everyday, swimming lap after lap in their different events.
Different people swim for different reasons. “I swim to stay in shape for baseball,” said Davis Vanderslice, freshman.
“I swim because it’s fun,” said Max Lindstrom, sophomore.
One newcomer to the WCA team, Michael Seifert, freshman, recently broke the school record in the 100 meter fly by a cumulative total of three and a half seconds. “Breaking a record feels groovy, it’s nice to make my mark on WCA swimming,” said, Seifert
While breaking a school record is not something to be scoffed at the teams overarching goal is to send someone to state. “When that happens that will be a big deal. We haven’t had someone qualify for eighteen years,” said, swim team coach Kent Kehr
In swimming it’s hard to tell when you are winning a race in swimming. “You can see your opponents on the turns, but basically you just want to swim your own race and give it your all.” said, Michael Seifert
“Swimming isn’t that big of a commitment. It doesn’t take work outside of practice,” said, Andrew Adrian, senior
While this may be true they definitely have to work at practice. “The hardest part about coaching is getting them in the pool every day,” said, Coach Kehr
The hardest part for new swimmers (according to Ben Mitchell, freshman) is the first two weeks. “You’ve never swam before and it’s a lot harder than you expect it to be,” said, Mitchell
The swimmers have had one very close loss, a convincing win, and a successful place in the Ladue Invitational tournament.