On November 14th, the swim team dove into their first practice of the 2023-2024 season more motivated than ever. The swim and dive team is made up of 25 people from both Junction and Palisade going by the Grand Junction mascot the Tigers. Sam Alexander, a junior at Palisade highschool has been swimming for four years and shares her excitement for the upcoming season. Alexander says, “My favorite thing about being on the swim is the team and I just like swimming in general. My favorite thing about the team is that everybody is nice and there’s not a lot of drama for me at least.” Swimming is one of those sports that often goes unnoticed but the commitment and hard work that must be put into it is often unmatched. Alexander says, “The hardest thing about swimming is staying motivated and not getting grumpy because it’s tough sometimes” Alexander explains how she hopes to drop ten seconds off of the 500 freestyle so she will make a state qualifying time. The Tigers were just shy of winning the conference meet last year and hope to win that title this year. All sports in the district prioritize academics on top of athletics including swimming in which many athletes have to work twice as hard to balance sports and academics. Alexander states, “The hardest thing about balancing school and swimming is how much time swimming takes so I don’t have much time for like studying and school work and a goal as a team would be for us to win conference because we got so close last year and I think our team is pretty stacked this year we got some good people.” The swim team is starting off the season strong and looking forward to their first meet in December!