Speed will be the key at the Frisco Aquatic Center on Saturday Sept. 30 as the swim team competes in the Frisco ISD Sprint Invite, where they will face 16 teams located across North Texas.

“The next meet we have is shortened meet so all the events are cut in half,” said junior James Vaughn, one of the team’s four captains. “I expect to do pretty good at this meet and hopefully the boys team will as well.”

Because the meet is a sprint invite, the only events taking place will be events covering 200 yards or under, meaning that it will be not as much about endurance as it will be about speed.

Out of all the teams offering competition at the meet, Vaughn considers Highland Park to be his team’s most formidable adversary.

“[Highland Park has] a lot of fast competitors that I’ve swam against in the past,” Vaughn said. “Last year they won swim in our district, region, and state titles.”

Many swimmers on the team, including senior captain Sloan Carevic, have high hopes for the fall season.

“My personal goal for the fall season is to hopefully break the school record in the coming months,” Carevic said. “And for dual meets, I would like our relays to be close to our times from last year, and I hope to score in the top three at each meet in the fall.”

By sifting through the pros and cons of the previous meet, the team has been focusing on its problem areas for Saturday.

“Our individual races in breaststroke, backstroke, and fly went really well,” Carevic said. “People who had never gone to a meet definitely stepped up and got a lot of good experience. One thing that wasn’t good was our relay exchanges. and a bunch of relays got disqualified because of inexperience in getting off the blocks at the right time.”

Vaughn said the new swimming facility housed at Sloan Creek Intermediate School has certainly earned its keep when it comes to helping the swimmers.

“Instead of having to wake up early to make it to practice and only have an hour and a half, we can sleep in and practice longer because our school is up the road,” Vaughn said. “We also don’t lose lanes to the public like we did at other training facilities.”