TC Swimmers Advance to States

In 2004, Emerson Davis placed fourth in the Girls 100 Yard Butterfly and Girls 50 Yard Freestyle at the Northern Regional Swim and Dive Meet. This qualified her for states. No other female member of T.C.’s swim and dive team has accomplished such a feat since then. Until now, that is.

This year two members of the swim and dive team qualified for statewide competition. Sophomore Abby Cox placed sixth in the 200 IM (two laps of each stroke) and senior Aubrey Kuester placed eighth in diving at the Northern Region competition, qualifying them both for states. Once they got to states, Cox placed sixteenth and Kuester placed twelfth.

So what does the T.C. swim and dive team have this year that enabled them to get to states that they didn’t have in years past? Two phenomenal swimmers obviously, but there is more to it than that. When asked the reason for T.C.’s relative success, Cox said, “My teammates are really supportive and we cheer for each other at meets.” She went on to explain how her friends all cheered for her during a relay at regionals so that she could make it to states. Even Coach Eanes, who was worried that the team had lost too much of its student leadership last year, was impressed with the team’s spirit this year. That’s not to say that the coaches weren’t great leaders. When asked about her favorite memory of this season, she said, “It was probably when my coach, Allison Sharp, came to dive at practice with us, got in her swimsuit, and showed us what she could do. That was probably the best day [this season].”

A tight-knit team and great coaches are not the only reason for T.C.’s success this year. Cox has been swimming for ten years (three of them with T.C.). She also swims with a club year round and puts in 20 hours of practice each week. This may not seem like much at first, but when you crunch the numbers, that’s almost a whole day out of every seven days spent swimming. She practices every day after school from 3:30 to 6:00, as well as two days a week before school from 4:30 to 7:00. She also practices from 7:00 to 10:00 every Saturday. Kuester, having only four years of diving experience (all of them with T.C.), has made up for lost time by putting in 14 hours a week. Kuester also mentioned that working out in the weight room on Mondays and Wednesdays helped quite a bit. All this work, however, would have no long term benefit for members of the team if they didn’t continue in the future.

When asked about her goals for next year, Cox said that she hopes to return to and place better in states, as well as improve her times. Kuester, who is graduating this year, hopes to make the swim and dive team in college. As to whether or not this will happen, we will have to wait until next winter to find out. For the meantime, however, congratulations to Abby, Aubrey, and all the members of the T.C. swim team!