Swim and dive to take on The Colony in dual meet

Junior Jesse Mendez approaches the wall.

Lovejoy swim and dive is scheduled for a dual meet against the Colony tonight at 6 p.m. The meet will be held at LISD Eastside Aquatics Center.

Head swim coach Matt Franks said the upcoming meet will be a key indicator for the team’s composition moving forward.

“Tonight’s meet will help Coach Rieff and I get a much better idea of what our lineup will look like come district championship, which is really what our dual meet season is all about,” Franks said.

Franks added that the team is emphasizing specific fundamentals in tonight’s meet.

“We’ve been talking a lot about getting better into and off the walls, and using underwater dolphin kicks to help us go faster while swimming less,” Franks said. “That will be one of the things we are looking for.”

The Leopards were without their top three swimmers last weekend. But Franks said he was still confident in his team going into the 5A TISCA meet and still had swimmers shine at the meet.

“With our top three swimmers at Junior Nationals last weekend, we still had plenty of firepower going into 5A TISCA,” Franks said. “The girls did really well. Ana Laura Faoro, our stud diver, came in third, breaking the school record for 11-dives. The girls swam really well, qualifying two relays and five individual swims for finals on Saturday finishing 12th overall. The boys qualified a relay and five individual swims to finals on their way to a 19th place finish. Given the format of the meet and the fact that we were not at full strength, I think we performed really well.”

Senior swimmer James Vaughn expressed excitement at the opportunity to compete in tonight’s meet.

“Having a dual meet against The Colony is different, just because it goes by faster and every swim counts and every place counts in order for us to win,” Vaughn said. “The energy is so much more exciting and everyone is up and cheering, and it’s a lot more fun.”

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Swim and dive to take on The Colony in dual meet

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