This year the boys swim team has had a very compelling season with multiple qualifiers. The boys race in multiple distances ranging from 50 to 200 meters. The form of swim ranges from freestyle to medley races. Medley races are a form of relay that can differ from only one style of swimming or they will all  have to swim a different type of stroke. There are six main types of swimming strokes: Front crawl ,backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly stroke and the side stroke. One of the athletes, Gavin Burke, who was the only athlete to qualify for state at palisade swam multiple races, swimming a total of 4 different races: The 50 meter freestyle, 100 freestyle, the 200 medley and 200 freestyle. This is not the first time Gavin has qualified for state.

 When Gavin Burke, a Freshman at Palisade was asked when he started swimming he said, “I have been swimming since I was only five years old, my parents put me in it just to see if I would like it and it just stuck with me.” Gavin Burke was not the only one on the team that qualified for state; he is going with 4 other teammates Noah, Andre, Ty and Harrison, Grand Junction High School. Swimming is a very compelling sport due to the science of water and that fat floats so the more physically capable you get the harder it actually gets to swim because you will be working against the water when you convert body fat into muscle mass. “To swim in the water and push yourself to the next level,” this is what Gavin had to say on what excites him the most about swimming. We wish Gavin and the rest of the swim team good luck as they go to state!