This year, swim had a bit of a rough start, but the Ladies’ Swim team holds strong and tries their hardest to improve!

The team recently competed at Liberty, and sadly lost. However, the team is still reaching new heights and competing as best they can!

“Last week, I couldn’t compete due to a shoulder injury. The last time I competed, I was at the meet right before winter break. It was a really great meet! I swam well that day, and got some personal records.”

Alyah’s injury was a wrench thrown into her season, but she persevered through it, getting back in the water as quickly as she could.

“We have ‘dry land’ practices on Saturdays, which is weight training. We do these practices to strengthen some of the muscles that aren’t used in swimming. Because I work on Saturdays, I can’t make it to practice, and it made my back weaker than my shoulders. The muscles in my shoulders were pulling forward, and made my bones crunch together.”

Even though her injury made her unable to compete, she still went to other swimming-related events.

“The thing with being injured is that you have to self-assess a lot and decide what’s best for you. My doctors and Rowan don’t really know what’s going on with you. Patience has been really important, finding the problem and treating it thoroughly, and treating it like a legitimate issue is very important, it takes time but it’s better than ignoring it.”

“I went to a few practices over winter break and it was alright, but I’ve missed meets like the Liberty meet last Tuesday, and we sadly lost.”

The meet at Liberty was a big rough patch in the swimmer’s season, which was made marginally worse by the lack of competitors.

“Even our coach told us ‘Don’t worry, we’re not going to win today’, and we were really short-staffed, we only had about sixteen girls that day. We lost by a landslide, and a girl got a concussion right off the bat.”

“We’re a pretty strong team, even though we’ve had a lot of losses. Every individual is going strong, and for me, I definitely feel like I’ve made some improvements. My coach is focused on more tactics and plans that other coaches haven’t been in the past. I feel confident in my abilities, I’m not quite at the state level, but I’ve made some personal records that I’m super proud of.”
Alyah’s season has been full of personal growth, creating new personal records at a multitude of swim meets! Here’s the list of Alyah’s new records:

Cheyenne Mountain Preliminary Round – 32.10 seconds
Palmer Final Round (100 free) – 1.14.19 seconds
Palmer Final Round (100 fly) – 1.38.74 seconds
Fountain-Fort Carson Final Round – 2.52.01 seconds

Despite the season’s outcome and her injury, Alyah is setting new personal records for herself and trying to lift her team up, in and out of the water! Alyah is currently in much better shape, but as she says, “my bones are still crunchy.”

Swim will be competing at home on 1/29 at 4 PM versus Rampart. Not only is it the last home game, but it’s also Senior Night, so don’t miss out on this spectacular meet!