The girls swim team endured a loss to Park’s rival, Benilde St. Margaret’s, Sept. 15th. According to head coach Amanda Forsberg, while the team did not win, they worked together and improved as a whole, seeing improvements in their individual times from their last meet. 

“Everyone did really well,” Forsberg said. “Everyone dropped time from last Thursday so I’m excited moving forward.”

Junior Stephanie Stone explained how important hard work is in order to prepare for future meets.

“We have our practices, we train,” Stone said. “And to work on our community, we plan on doing some team bonding which will help us a lot at our next meet.”

Senior and captain Isabel Nathan touched on the importance of trust and teamwork in order to win. 

“It’s really important for us to trust each other and work together as a team,” Nathan said. “One of the benefits of having a smaller team is the fact that we all know each other really well and we have the ability to work together.”

Forsberg said that balancing athletics and academics can be stressful for the team, but everyone does their best to separate school and swimming. 

“I try to get them to realize that the school day is over and this is the time to let everything go,” Forsberg said. “This is the time to be around your team and support each other.”

Stone shared how the team raises morale and boosts team spirit among themselves. 

“We do things like group huddles before our relays,” Stone said. “We also all cheer together as a community to support our teammates.”

Nathan said that she hopes this swimming season will be full of joy and that she can make it memorable. 

“I hope that me and the other captains can make some really good memories for our teammates,” said Nathan. “I want this to be a season that everyone looks back at and remembers as the season that everyone was happy.”

The girls swim team will have their next meet 6:00 p.m., Sept. 20 where they will face off against Chanhassen at Pioneer Ridge Middle School.