The Lewis & Clark swim team started out the year with a record-breaking meet at the Northwest Conference championships. The meet lasted three days, ending with the Day 3 Finals on Feb. 12th.
Claire Greene ’20, a new member of the Pios described the meet and ultimate win as, “a very confidence boosting…uniting experience.” Greene continued, “all of us have worked so hard together…we felt like a really unified team after that win.” When Greene was asked about who may have influenced her, as it is her first year on the team, she answered, “All of our upperclassmen have taught us a lot other than just the basics of where to go at a meet and what the order of events is but also how to push through all the very hard practices and focus on our end goal which is improving as a team and as individuals.”
Kassie Kometani ’19, one of those peers senior to Greene, placed runner-up in the 100 meter Freestyle. Landing her in the top-two finish of the meet. Then, sophomore standing Katie Kulp finished with a 2:12.57 on her 200 meter Butterfly, beating her preliminary time by one second.
International student Natsuha Kajii finished with a time of 18:40.23 on her 1,650 meter Freestyle. Landing her tenth place overall in the finals.
“She’s the best teammate ever,” Greene said. “She’s so positive all the time everybody’s going to miss her…. she’s definitely something special that our team had that I don’t think a lot of teams get to experience.”
In the theme of breaking Pio records, Matt Jackson ’20 broke, and then re-broke the Pioneer 200 meter Breastroke record. Finalizing his time at 2:10.23. Followed then by fellow men’s team swimmers Zac Oser ’17 and August Bergh ’19. Oser, finished eighth overall in his 200 meter Breastroke, and Bergh finished eleventh with a time of 16:51.75 in his 1,650 meter Freestyle.
“The men’s team was so amped up on Saturday,” said Greene. “It inspired us. I think training together with the both teams is to our advantage, and we get to learn off of each other because both teams are very different.”
Both the men and women’s swim team train, travel, and attend the same meets together, allowing for a dynamic team experience.
After a tremendous weekend, the confidence and pride within the team continues to grow.
“Our team broke four school records in finals tonight and everyone who advanced from this morning swam faster. The support they give each other is tremendous,” said swim coach Chris Frantz. This statement does not even fully represent the success of the swim team at this meet considering the fact that the team not only maintained their placement in the league, but also broke a total of seven LC swim records, and maintaining their overall placement as a team in the league.
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