The swim team crosses through the locker room doors into the YMCA natatorium.

Coming off the high of their last season as division champions, they want another title.

Junior swimmer Benjamin Holub wants to taste success again this year.

“We went completely undefeated, and almost every meet, we crushed everybody,” Holub said. “This year’s gonna be a little bit harder because we lost some of our major players … most of our sprinters, but I think we’ll be able to pick it up in distance this year.”

The season spans from November until March, depending on the team’s entry in counties, districts, or states, according to Holub.

The long season results in challenges for the team.

“Sometimes it does get hard because we have practices every single day after school, but occasionally we will have morning practices,” Holub said. “So, sometimes that can just add up a little bit.”

Sophomore swimmer Timothy Shue has also experienced the struggles of being a new swimmer.

“Learning the kicks for the strokes; the timing for the kicks on the strokes is very challenging,” Shue said.

New swimmers like Shue also need to understand how the sport itself works.

“So, there’s multiple events, kind of like Track and Field,” Holub said. “A sprint event is 100 or 50 of a certain stroke; there are four strokes, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly and freestyle. There’s a 50 free, which is the shortest event, and then there’s 100 of each of those strokes. Those are considered your sprint events. Distance events are considered either 200 freestyle or 200 IM, which is 50 of each of the strokes together; and then your 500 freestyle is your longest event.”

Senior swimmer Tyler Burgess believes the team will be able to achieve success once more.

“The strong connections our team will build with each other throughout the season … will help us build morale and the competitive spirit needed to win our meets,” Burgess said. “I believe I can help my team achieve this by giving my teammates advice for swimming, getting to know them well, and by motivating them to keep going when the practices and meets get tough.”

As the swim team prepares for the Dover Eagle Swimming Invitational at Dover Area High School on Dec. 2, the team is able to visualize attaining the goals behind their hard work.

“…when you finish a race and all of your training up to that point actually pays off,” Holub said. “You go in, you do a hard race, and you finish with a medaling position. It definitely pays off.”