On January 26, both the girls and boys swim teams competed against Oakdale High School. The boys fell 71-99, ending their season 4-3. This is a big improvement for the boys team, as the last time the team won against Oakdale was in 1997. The girls lost by only one point, 93-92, ending their season 5-2. 

Many swimmers had personal best bests during the night, including: Jillian Lotito, James Martinez, Luke DeMember, Tristan Chance, Michael Rosquist, Brayden Harrington, Grayson Houser, Lyra Garrett, Emma Bowers, GiGi Payne, Sam Bennett, Andy Kahwajy, Emily Stadter, Mac Bassett, Augie Jansen, Emily Lotito, and Annabel Geisler. 

“We should still hold our heads high from our competition against Oakdale. We won the majority of events and fell just short in several of our relays. They outnumbered us with the amount of divers they had which put them in the lead at the start of the meet, but still, we swam amazing and had lots of team and personal growth,” said head Coach Joe Hawkins.

In the 2019 season, the boys fell to Oakdale 25-150, and the girls fell 92-94. This year, both the boys and girls were closer to beating Oakdale and reaching their personal bests.

“I was proud of how we performed and we swam really strong. I’m a little disappointed that we fell one point short, but I’m confident that our girl’s team next year will use that as fuel to swim fast,” said senior Caroline Hobson. 

Freshman Jillian Lotito had a very tight 200 IM race. She was neck-to-neck with an Oakdale swimmer. Sadly, she lost the race, but only by 0.44 seconds.

“If I had kicked a little more towards the end, I would have won, but I’m swimming it at Counties and will definitely beat her next time,” Lotito said.

Follow both the Girls and Boys swim team to the County Championship on February 12 at Walkersville High School.