The Slippery Rock Swim Team has had 12 meets since November 1st. The final standings for the boy’s team were 4-8 and the girl’s team went 10-2.  The boys team has five new members and the girls team has gained ten new members. Altogether, the boys team has eight member and the girls have sixteen members. The boys team captains are juniors Trent Donaldson and  Heston Suorsa, and the girls team captains are seniors Barbie Cessar and Taylor Shaner. 

The events in swimming include relays, sprints, specialized stroke events, and free style.  They are organized in distances of 50, 100, 200, and 500 meters.

Pre-engineering and technology teacher Mr. Belowich is the swim team coach. He states that he selects which member competes in each event in order to make sure that his athletes “Swim to their strengths.” When asked what the team does to practice, Coach Belowich confirms that the team does dry land exercises as well as swimming exercises. He explained that they do dry land exercises, such as weight lifting, to increase their overall body fitness. When the team members are swimming in the field house pool, they focus on technique and endurance. When they do endurance practices, they swim between 5,000 and 6,000 yards. 

Among the new members of the swim team is senior Seth Kennedy. Kennedy explained that he joined because “I personally wanted to be better prepared for the Navy Seals once I leave high school.” Seth competes in the 50 freestyle sprint, the 100 freestyle sprint, the 100 freestyle relay, and the 400 freestyle relay.

Senior Ava Marini joined the swim team in her freshman year to try something new, and has been on the team for four years now. The events Marini typically competes in are the 100 backstroke, 100 free style, 200 freestyle, the  200 medley, and the 200 free relay. To the students who want to join the team she said, “Anyone who wants to join the swim team should try.  I didn’t know much about swimming techniques when I began, but I learned. You will be able to make more friends from it, too.”