Swim and dive season has just begun. Divers are elegantly gliding through the air and swimmers tearing up the water. A new season brings its challenges as usual, but this year a bigger change will take place.

With changes comes challenges. This year, the swimmers are only getting three swimming lanes instead of their usual four. It can get pretty crowded. Practice for the novice swimmers start at 3:45 p.m. and ends an hour later. At 4:45 p.m., the veteran swimmers come and practice until 6:15 p.m. “For the younger kids, there are more in their lanes because they are still working on their swimming,” said head coach Brian Jahnke. “For the veterans, there’s less of kids in their lane so they get an even more efficient work out.”

There are a total of 46 swimmers and divers with five returning State qualifiers. With the number of swimmers that the team has this year, a new schedule has been made. “We share the pool with the club team, a swim team that is not involved with the school, and their numbers this year are more, and we need to accommodate,” said Jahnke.

In the first couple of days the more experienced swimmers held workshops in the water teaching the amateur swimmers the basic strokes. One particular swimmer helped teach the breast stroke and turns. “It helps them to know how to do all four strokes and when they actually start the swim workouts, they can swim the right strokes,” junior Jamon Davis said.

For veteran swimmers, junior Scott Dike said, “We will still be a good team and we will still have Wednesday practices together. I also think these practices will be better because we get to swim more.” The new schedule gives the swimmers an extra half hour to swim. “It will also let the younger swimmers gain experience before every competition,” said Dike.

Sophomore diver Dayne Moore, ended his freshman diving year early with a broken nose. “I was doing a reverse somersault when I broke my nose,” he said. “My nose hit my knee, but the day before that I hit my nose on the diving board. I kinda just finished it from there.”

Last year senior diver Quentone Larson, qualified for the first time to go to State. “I hope I’ll make it this year [to state], to prove that last year wasn’t an accident,” Larson said. “Hopefully, Dayne [Moore] and Miles [Sweeney] go too.”

Even though the practices are split, the goal for the team is just the same. “As always, the competitive goal is to get as many kids to State as much as we can,” Jahnke said. “We’ve got some really good swimmers. I would like to see a boys and a girls relay to go [to State], with several individuals qualifiers.”