The New Hartford Swimming Team has harvested the fruits of labor planted throughout the swim season.
During regents week, Mr. Spencer Strife, the physical therapist stood right around the pool as Mr. McFarland had called him over. Every swimmer put in extraordinary effort in practice, and Mr. McFarland increased the practice difficulty to prepare us.
That training was worth it. We are undefeated in dual meets, we won the TVL, with the 2nd highest scoring team trailing New Hartford Swim over 200 points off. The 200 medley relay (Jack Reale, Eoin Clive, Brendan Gruneich and Garrett McFarland), 400 free relay (Garrett McFarland, Parker Putnam, Eoin Clive and Brendan Gruneich) qualified for States and competed in Ithaca on March 5 and 6. Brendan Gruneich and Parker Putnam also qualified for individual events.
However, what mentality did it take for the swimmers to persist?
Every practice, swimmers give all their effort.
“I usually try to give my all on each practice for every set, even if it’s hard, no matter how hard it is. The more tired I get the better each practice was,” Eoin Clive, a Senior swimmer, said.
There were two swimming “modes” that swimmers utilized during practice: aerobic and sprint. Long swimming causes mental pressure as swimmers constantly face dark water as they flip over and over again. The sprints result in high lactic acid build-up causing soreness.
Normal swim practice would last 2 hours where Mr. McFarland reminded us every time, “What you want to get out of this practice depends on how much effort you put in.” We don’t have to sprint, we don’t have to swim with effort, but we choose to. That is how we improve.
It isn’t just the swimmers either, during practice, we share the pool with the divers. They have the unfortunate reality of jumping from high places and easily getting injured.
“Before every dive begins, I would stand behind the diving board, heartbeat roaring, adrenaline rushing, and my mind racing to remind myself what I should do for everything to work out in the end,”Jae-Hoon Lee reminisces. “My name is announced, then the dive, and I am on the board. I breathe to connect every nerve to my muscles and to my mind. Afterwards, I just walk down and jump and throw the dive.”
Divers have to stick themselves in uncomfortable positions explained Finn McNair.
New Hartford Swim has made it to states and will continue to prosper.
