With the state preliminary and finals coming up this weekend, the swim and dive team will look to dive in after a historic regional performance. The girls team won the first regional championship in school history, and the boys were second place at regionals for the second year in a row.

Head swim coach Matthew Franks said he believes in all of his swimmers, but he has high expectations for a few athletes in particular.

“We are hoping for more school records and to get at least two of our four relays into the championship final,” Franks said. “Jed Michael Jones and Eason Jones are also very highly ranked in their events, and Jed is looking to defend his state title in the 200 IM. [Senior diver] Ana Laura Faoro is looking to try and podium this year in diving after placing in the top six last year.”

Junior Amelia Poulton said the girls team is looking to build off its regional performance.

“Overall our team did what we needed to do, and got second swims for finals and got many personal bests,” Poulton said. “I personally performed pretty well. I made it back to finals in my two individual events, 50 free and 100 free, and in two relays, 200 free relay and 400 free relay,” Poulton said.

Franks outlined the steps his team needs to successfully prepare for the upcoming state meets. 

“Our main preparation is relays, making sure that we have the right order to give us the best exchanges and lead to the fastest time possible. The key to success for the team the entire season has been to come in everyday and give it their all.” Now we are fine tuning and making sure we do one or two things better than we did at Regionals.”

Senior Jed Jones said he and his teammates could not be more excited for the upcoming state meet.

“I am very confident,” Jones said. “I’ve seen what they’ve done in practice and I believe that they are prepared to perform extremely well at state.”