For many students at Liberty High School, winter also means swim season. It means practices at 5:30 in the morning, team dinners, and lots of fun. But being part of the swim team also means being ready to accept challenges and give the best of yourself. So after months of practice and many meets, 27 swimmers of the LHS varsity swim team were selected to compete at Regionals on February 6th.  

The swimmers were all excited to go to Regionals. Senior, Katinka Andriga is an exchange student from the Netherlands, she joined the swim team this year at Liberty and it is her first time at Regionals. “I don’t think I’ll do that good but I’m excited and a little bit nervous,” she said. 

Senior, Reed Dodson is one of the captains of the team. For him, it is the third time at Regionals and he has expectations for the competition “I hope I get 5th place at least in the hundred fly but I think it’ll be fun regardless” he stated. 

For Senior, Grace Lasher it is her first time at regionals and she was very eager. ”I was surprised, districts were canceled this year so they just took the top 3 people in everything but usually it is pretty competitive so I was pretty shocked,” Lasher explained.

“I’m really excited for tomorrow, I’m hoping I’ll do well and I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun and a good experience,”

Senior Bryar Laine is also a captain of the team. She has been swimming for 13 years and she went to Regionals every year of high school. She had high expectations for the competition “For the hundred breaststroke, I’m moderately confident but I’m a little bit nervous. I’m hoping to go to States as I went sophomore and junior years. I have a reputation to hold” Laine joked.

Senior, Nat Cady swam at liberty all four years of high school and she was also elected captain of the team. She went to Regionals every year and she has her goals set. “I’m nervous but I’m excited. I wanna go under a minute in a 100 free and try to go to states in a hundred back, you never know” she said.

Senior, Shannon Cooper on the other hand decided not to put too much pressure and just enjoy the competition day. “I’m just trying to have fun, no big goals. It’s my last meet. It’s our last meet together.” Cooper said. 

“ We’re on a relay together and we have a tradition on our relay, we have a song” added Nat. They both agreed that it would be an emotional day. 

Finally, the day of the meet comes. On Tuesday, February 6th the group of 27 swimmers headed to Christiansburg Aquatic Center, ready for a very long day. They left at 5.30 am and came back at 11 pm. The competition went great and three of the swimmers were selected to go to States: Bryar Laine, Chase Laine, and Marshall Howard. 

The swim coach, Coach Laine was very proud of all of them. “They did amazing! Like they did really amazing! However many races there were, 88% of them were best times and some of them dropped 15 seconds 30 seconds… it was great,” declared Coach. She also shared her feelings about the season-ending. “I’ll miss seeing those kids every morning and watching them get faster and I’ll miss our dinners that we have together. I miss that team part when we’re out of season but I’m also tired and I think we’re all tired and, we’re all ready for a break.”

The swimmers were also pretty satisfied with their performances. “I dropped some time, I wasn’t the fastest but I did really good. It was so much fun, it was amazing” said Katinka Andriga.

She added that she was sad that the season ended and that even though swimming is an individual sport, she still felt it like a team sport here at Liberty. 

Bryar Laine is very proud of what she accomplished. “I was really happy because the past two times I made states I got 4th and 5th so it was weird to get second and it was exciting,” she said. She mentioned that even though she was very sad that high school swimming was done for her, she was glad that it ended this way. Through this experience, she got more confident and she learned to take small steps and not always go for the big things because it is the little things that really count. Nat Cady is also very positive about her results “I did not go to states but I still got a personal best and I was really happy with it. I would have loved to compete at States but it’s fine and I still did my best in all of my races and I had fun” she announced.

The swimmers, especially the seniors, are very grateful for all this experience. Nat Cady added “I feel really lucky to have been a part of the team for 4 years and have been voted captain and I feel that this team has done so much for me and I’ll be sad to see it go but I’m kinda just remembering the happy parts for now”

But it is also hard to say goodbye to this adventure. “I’m gonna miss the family environment especially if you are on a relay with a certain group of people for the whole season or several years. You bond with those people a lot and the team feels like a second family so I’m really gonna miss that” concluded Shannon Cooper.

In conclusion, this meet was a lot of emotions for our swimmers but they will remember it as a great moment of sharing with their teammates and supporting each other no matter what. They all tried their best and came out proud of themselves which is what’s most important. For some, it also means the end of an adventure that taught them how to push themselves, how to act as a family, and much more through their high school years.