Now that they are in a more competitive conference, members of the 2014 girls’ swim team will need to put forth hard work and good teamwork skills to succeed, according to the captains.

Senior Tati Yepes, captain, said she thinks it is important for swimmers to focus not only on improving their times, but to focus on giving others the encouragement to do so as well.

“Like always, we aspire to beat our best time as individuals; as a team we want to encourage each other to do our best,” Yepes said.

Senior Emmi Zheng, captain, said her definition of teamwork involves a strong level of encouragement and fellowship inside and outside of the swimming setting.

“To me, teamwork is how well the team works together and supports each other at practices and meets, but also the friendship and chemistry of the team out of the pool,” Zheng said.

This support plays an important role now that the girls are in Section 6AA, a more competitive swim section, according to Zheng.

Important past feats of the Park swim team include winning the conference championships of 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2013, according to head coach Joe Yaeger. He said important upcoming meets include the meet on September 4 vs. Chaska and the meet on October 14 vs. Benilde.

Yaeger said even though the girls must improve as individuals, in the end it all comes down to how the girls perform as a team.

“We are 41 strong and the success of the team isn’t determined by one girl, but the whole team,” Yaeger said.

According to Zheng, there are more members on the team than in any of her previous five years swimming for park. Zheng said she believes the size of the team and the presence of many strong, middle school swimmers will help make this a memorable season.

“I hope that will make the team a lot stronger because even though a lot of them are very young, they are very fast,” Zheng said.

Yaeger said his goal for the season is for swimmers to improve their times and feel good about their feats.

“Just walking away from the season with a sense of accomplishment that they never gave up,” Yaeger said.