According to Schwietering, this strong commitment and enthusiastic spirit never falters despite a Sept. 13 meet against Benilde-St. Margaret’s, in which the Park lost by four points with a 87-84 defeat. Schwietering said while he thinks the girls may have been disappointed initially, they have moved on.

“I think they accepted the loss because we lost the meet not because of mistakes but because we were beat by the better team,” Schwietering said.
Senior captain Kathryn Ostrom said she believes the team is more motivated now and is excited to see how people swim and improve at upcoming dual meets.
“I think that losing to Benilde will drive us to try harder in practice (because) a lot of people want to get team records and pool records so that motivates them to swim fast,” she said. “We have really great coaches that want us to do well and push us to our limits.”
Sophomore Tati Yepes said that while the team was upset after the loss, there are good lessons to come from it.
“There were positive things to take away from Benilde, like the amazing times and the sense of togetherness we all got from experiencing something like that as a team,” Yepes said.
Schwietering said he the team’s hard working mentality will help carry them through the rest of the season and hone their skills to succeed.
“Their determination to win is the team’s biggest strength,” he said. “They have accomplished everything I have asked them to do. I am proud of them for that. Now, it’s just continuing to work hard and refine our strokes.”
The season is early and there are still eight meets before conference, Section and State. The next meet is Sept. 20 at home against Robbinsdale Cooper.