Swimming this year has been active, and Varsity members like Diana Bralita, Jacob Hasse, and Coach Charles Scribner have all been successful in their respective roles.
“It has been amazing. Swimming has taught me how to persevere through challenges and has also given me some of my happiest memories and closest friends in my life. I have devoted a lot of my time to this sport and I believe it has given me a lot back,” Senior Diana Bralita stated in an interview.
Bralita has stated that she’s spent 12 years in club swimming, and has loved it since she was 6 years old.
“I have loved swimming and especially racing ever since I swam my very first competition when I was six years old. My parents were the ones to push me to join the sport, but ever since then my passion for the sport has only grown. I really believe my life will be so different when I am done swimming.” Bralita said.
“I’ve really enjoyed swimming relays this year because, other than me, the entire A relay is freshmen. They bring so much energy and excitement to meetings which pumps me up to do my best and be a good leader. I also just love the boys and girls on the team. We are all closely knit and have a great time at practice and on the bus,” Bralita said.
The bond between teammates seems to be universally felt this year, as the loss of the previous years seniors have forced juniors and seniors to pick up slack.
“One of the biggest changes was the number of seniors that we lost from last year, but we have been able to pull in the slack. My favorite part of swimming this year is the bond that we have formed with other teams,” Junior Jacob Hasse said. Though COVID has affected swimming regulations and procedure, it hasn’t slowed down the spirit of competition.
“Most of the challenges have been with traveling to meets, planning when and how to have a safe place for the team to eat after competitions. Most meets have not had spectators so they are very quiet so at times building the excitement for a meet/race has been a challenge,” Coach Scriber said.
Though these challenges have presented themselves in all sports this year, swimming has struggled more on account of the fact that so many swimmers have quit, graduated, or decided not to swim entirely.
Though challenges have presented themselves, Coach Charles still believes that there will be standout competitors from Hastings when it comes to upcoming conference and state competitions. “For the girls: Diana Brailita, Hayden Stephenson, Abby Lauder, Izzy Cerveny, Kaitlyn Mousel, Lucy Fago and Kara Kennard will make the biggest impact for the team at conference and state. For the boys: Jay Ceperley, Jacob Haase, Jarrett Ochsner, Max Faris and Andrew Heckman will make the biggest impact for the team,” Coach Charles stated.
While it’s unclear how conference and state meets will go, the team holds confidence they will perform well with so much talent available this year.
