Although this is not their first swim meet, HHS Swim and Dive had their first home meet of the season for both varsity and junior varsity last Friday, December 12, at the Westover Pool. They competed against three other high schools including Charlottesville, Spotswood, and John Handley.

Freshman Urie Conis has been swimming for the team since seventh grade and thought the team did pretty well on this meet.

“It was awesome. It was a cool meet, and I thought our team did pretty well,” Conis said. “We didn’t win, but it’s alright.”

He swam three events that night and had mixed feelings on the results of each one.

“My 200 IM was not very good. I was three seconds slower, but my 500 Free was alright,” Conis said. He came first in his heat. “It was my first time swimming the 500 so I didn’t know when to sprint but now I know. My time was 6:12 (for the 500), but this Friday I’m going to do better.”

After the 500, Conis swam the 200 Free Relay in which he claims he didn’t do very well on since he just did the long swim prior. He thought his last event, the 400 Free relay, was okay. Conis says he “could’ve done a little better” and he will next time.

One of the captains, senior Abby Strickler, also commented on the 500 Free event.

“We had Austin (senior) and Aaron (junior) swimming the boys’ 500 Free [in the first heat], and normally Aaron would win that event and Austin would come in second. Austin actually won which was really exciting. It was only his second or third time swimming that,” Strickler said. “Everybody’s times in it were really close which doesn’t usually happen in the 500. It was great that everybody was cheering and super excited about it.”

As for herself, Strickler thought she did well in the meet, but says that it was a little crazy as it was everyone’s first home meet.

“As a captain, it’s making sure everybody knows what’s going on, and helping coach out with stuff that he has to do for the meet,” Strickler said. “My best event was probably my 200 Free because that was my first event for the meet so I wasn’t really tired when we did that.”

“I think everybody has a pretty close relationship. It’s a lot of getting closer as a team and figuring out where people’s strengths are so we can put them in the right events,” Strickler said. “We’re getting closer as the season goes along which is fun.”

Practices are going to get a lot harder now, according to Strickler. She likes how the team gets to know each other, especially with the underclassmen.

“The team needs discipline. Everyone needs to be more serious about swimming if they want to do better,” Conis said.

With this said, Strickler revealed the goals they wish to achieve for this season.

“I think we definitely want to try to send people to states if we can. We’re probably going to have more boys go than girls,” Strickler said. “[Also,] try to get a couple relays and individuals to go to regionals.”