This past week, we had the chance to interview the seniors on our palisade girls swim team.
Abigail Price, Raeley Branson, Izzy Meyer are this year’s seniors, who have all made a great impact on the swim team since they have joined it.
The seniors started off talking about the sport and their roles in the sport. Abigail Price starts off saying, “ I’ve been swimming for the past 4 years. Swimming is pretty straight forward, we just swim back and forth a bunch”. She also added, “ This year was one of my favorites, and I was glad to finish out my senior year with a good team”. The whole swim team has made many amazing memories throughout their season and highschool careers. “ The CMU pool, it’s cold, it’s really nice, and it’s the only meet pool that we swim at.” said Izzy Meyer about her favorite pool to swim at. Raeley Branson also added, “I would agree with CMU, and since we know it so well it gives us a home advantage”. Abigail shared with us the biggest accomplishment they had as a team. “As a team, we really did well this year with coming together. Obviously swimming is an individual sport, but it really does take a team to achieve the times that you want out of it. And I think this year we had a really strong team that really pushed each other to be better”.
The three seniors also shared with us their own personal accomplishments. “Personally, I have made states all four years of swimming, and I’ve also qualified top 10 for a couple of events in the past years” said Abigail. Izzy added, “I think being able to finish the season without an injury is a big one for me” last but not least, Raeley said, “My biggest accomplishment was that I swam the 100 breaststroke and every time I swam it I dropped at least a second”.
Throughout the years, these seniors have always managed to keep up with school as well as sports. Here is what they shared about this experience. Abigail started off by sharing, “It wasn’t easy, the practice schedule was always weird, we sometimes would have morning practices or practices late at night, because we had to work around all of the other CMU swim teams, so I feel like that was pretty difficult”. Raeley added, “Yeah I agree, I think it’s just finding the right balance and finding time to do homework”.
Last, the seniors shared with us their favorite part of swimming. “For me personally, I have a lot of really good memories connected to it, and I’ve met a bunch of really amazing people and have allowed me to grow in other ways other than just as an athlete” said Abigail. Raeley added: “I have to agree, I think it teaches you a lot, and I love the hard work aspect and how I feel after practice and always feel like I’m a better person during swim season”. As these bulldogs end their highschool sports careers, they each stated some advice that they would give to anyone trying out for the swim team. “Try something new, and don’t be nervous”. Congratulations to these girls and to the rest of the swim team for an amazing season!