SPARKS Swim and Dive plunges into competition season

Jasper Green, The Rubicon Editor|September 28, 2017

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Jonah Harrison

SPLASH. Captain Abby Lanz dives backwards into the pool during a recent competition at Humboldt High School. “The girls diving team is really small, and since it’s such a small group we’re really tight knit, and we’re all very close. As a team, we want to get 11 dive lists, which is when you are able to do two dives from each of the ve categories: forwards, backs, reverses, inwards, and twists, and a third dive from one of the categories to add up to 11 dives in total,” Lanz said.

Halfway through the season, the girls swimming and diving team continues to find success in competition.

“Being a part of the girls swimming team is a lot of fun. We support each other everyday, and talk about what is going on in our lives. We have spaghetti dinners to carb load before meets sometimes and those are fun, but besides that we just have a lot of time before and after practice to hang out, like in the locker room or on the bus,” junior Michaela Polley said.

The girls diving team practices separately from the swimmers, and is a much smaller group.

“The girls diving team is really small, and since it’s such a small group we’re really tight knit, and we’re all very close,” captain Abigail Lanz said.

“Each day, we begin by stretching which is mostly arm stretching, and sometimes we have announcements. Everyone knows what they need to do for their warmup, so we do that individually,” Polley said.

While St. Paul Academy and Summit School has 10 swimmers and 12 divers, overall as the SPARKS, a co-op with the Highland Park school, they have around 50 girls to make up a full team.

“We have performed well in competitions so far, winning two and doing well in another competition that wasn’t scored. Our section meet happens in November, and we have prelims one day and finals the next day, and you have to qualify individually for state,” Polley said.

The SPARKS biggest challenge is having all team members get 11 dive lists.

“As a team we want to get 11 dive lists, which is when you are able to do two dives from each of the five categories: forwards, backs, re- verses, inwards, and twists, and a third dive from one of the categories to add up to 11 dives in total,” Lanz said.