Led by freshman Nicole Riopelle, the girls’ varsity swim and dive team placed third at the regionals competition on Oct. 30 at Lake Highland Prep in Orlando. 

“The whole team put a lot of effort into this meet and the season,” Riopelle said. “We worked with what we had and our swimmers had some amazing times.”

Assistant coach Rebecca Matoska said the swimmers paid attention to technique all season and worked hard to improve.

“All of the stroke work we worked on all season came together,” she said. “We saw some very high-quality swims across the race.”

Several swimmers suffered injuries and sickness during the meet.

“We wanted everyone to have a good day but that’s harder when your sick,” Matoska said. “But we knew everyone would go out there and try their best.”

Riopelle was one of the swimmers who pushed through a sickness during the meet. 

“I tried my best but being sick during the meet set me back,” she said. “I would have had a better chance of going to States if I had a full week of training before the meet.”

The competition proved more fierce this year.

“Unlike last year, many private schools had skilled swimmers fly in from out of the country,” Riopelle said. “ Sadly, our relays were not fast enough to beat some of those schools.   

By Ava Bartlett