Eaton Swim and Dive officially has begun its season and the ladies are very excited to get back into the sport and compete alongside peers. Led by dedicated coaches, the team began their daily practices on Nov. 17. According to Ady Schlemer (29), a typical day of practice looks like, “a lot of back and forth, a lot of drilling, and a lot of swimming.” She has been competing for three years, and typically does the freestyle and breaststroke.
Showing the effect of hard work in competiting is a big part of every sport. For swimming, competitions are very structured. “We go to a school and have an open, timed warmup. After that, events start for swimmers, then about halfway through, the divers have their event. Each diver does six or 11 dives, depending on the meet. Then the swimmers will finish out the rest of their events,” said sophomore Arabella Fitch. This is the second year that she will be competing, and she plans to continue competing in dive. She says she would like to improve on her twisting dives and her mindset in the sport.
As this is her senior year, Kaelin Dugan is extra excited for her last season. She competes in diving as well, and her passion for the sport is strong. She said, “I like trying new tricks and feeling confident that I can do something great.”
Swim is not just about practicing and competing. The girls have made it known that they are a tight-knit group, and have friendships that help make the sport so much fun. For team bonding, Schlemer said, “We do some team dinners, we talk a lot during classes and we do team breakouts at the end of every practice.” They have a common goal, which is, according to Fitch, that “the team wants to be super supportive of each other.”
Last year, the team finished second in the 3A Patriot League and seventh in 3A of Colorado. The 2024-25 team consisted of six seniors, so this year the roster is going to look quite a bit different. Dugan said, “There are a lot of new people this year, so it’s going to be a lot of new beginnings and fresh starts for a lot of people. It will be great to see them improve.” Though the team may look different, the passion is the same, and the team hopes to end the season feeling successful.
