According to girls’ swimming head coach Joe Yaeger, after several complaints about the high school swimming pool last year, the school renovated the air ventilation system over the summer.

“The air ventilation system in the ceiling has dropped down. So there’s new pipes and the old ventilation system has been covered with new tiles,” Yaeger said.

According to sophomore swimmer Lexi Lee, the old conditions of the pool caused swimmers to have trouble breathing.

“If we were doing sprints especially, or there were a lot of people in the pool, we wouldn’t be able to breathe that well and a lot of people would be coughing. It made it a lot harder to swim,” Lee said.

Yaeger said the previous ventilation system was outdated and could not keep up with daily shifts in weather, causing difficult conditions for swimmers.

“During early fall, when the weather changes dramatically at night and then warms up a little bit, the air system couldn’t keep up so it wouldn’t move air fast enough,” Yaeger said. “The swimmers complained about the temperature of the pool.”

Yaeger said the renovations will improve the team atmosphere in the pool because swimmers won’t have to worry about the air when practicing or competing.

“(The renovations are) going to give us a better environment knowing that we won’t have those issues — just to not even have to worry about them or think that they will come up at all. We will be able to move forward,” Yaeger said.

Sophomore swimmer Mazie Lainsbury said the team feels confident about upcoming practices and meets.  

“Practices are going good so far and last season was really good so I feel like people are optimistic about how (this season) will be,” Lainsbury said. “It will be easier for (swimmers) to get through practice without having problems breathing.”

The team’s next meet takes place at 5 p.m. Aug. 30 at Hopkins North Junior High School against Hopkins.