Swim season started in February and continued until the WBAL Championship held on May 3rd. The biggest change for this year is that there is only one varsity team due to the departure of Couch Maddie.
“ I feel like having one varsity team is really good, because everyone gets connected with everybody…I think it’s really important especially for the freshmen to look up to their juniors and seniors,” said team captain Emma Kitsler.
Also, this year the team practiced mostly in the NDB pool, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Woodside Priory HS.
“Serra has a very large team this year that takes up all the lanes. After their swim practices, they’ve got a very large club water polo group that practices until late at night. So their pool is in use throughout the week at night,” stated Couch Wendy Connolly.
This was the major challenge of this season that because of the long distance of Woodside Priory from here, the commitment rate is slightly lower. Another challenge was that swimmers kept getting sick, such as ear infection.
“We had a lot of sickness. We have other sports, winter sports,” stated Connolly.
Although this was a tough season, the swimmers accomplished personal goals and improved their skills. Remarkably, the team tried something new this season such as the Catholic School Invitation held at St. Francis High School on March 29th.
“I think an eye opening experience would be the small Catholic School Invite that Swim Meet. And my hope is that next year, when it’s in southern California, more of our swimmers will be able to go,” said Connolly.
“I’ve overall gotten better at swimming and faster and got new best times, so I think that’s pretty good,” said team captain Sophie Kistler.
“This season captains were responsible for um buying senior gifts and making the posters, and I think that’s important to honor the seniors, because this is their last year swimming.”
“I think the major challenge we’ve had this season compared to last year is that Serra was not letting us use their pool. Our pool has only four lanes and it’s too short. It’s like 23 yards. We practice at Woodside Priory two days a week, but it’s really hard because it’s really late.”
Despite the major challenge, the Varsity Swim Team closed up their season at the WBAL Championship at Sacred Heart Prep. Four swimmers, Sophie Kistler, Emma Kistler, Caitlin McCormick and Gabby Goldfard exceeded top 16 finalists in several events. NDB wrapped up the season with 9th place in the league, with points of 79.
Overall, this is a challenging yet memorable season. Athletes improved and broke multiple personal bests.
Freshman Rayya Bazlamit participated in Water Polo Fall Season and joined swimming in spring. She emphasized that swimming is a good choice for improving skills as well as preparing for the upcoming season.
“It’s a lot of fun. And the swimmats are a lot of fun, like when we all are together and we get into a race against each other. You also get to meet a whole bunch of new people from other schools that do swim, so it’s really fun when you get to meet new people,” said Bazlamit.
