Written by Newspaper Staff Reporter Lexie Hunter

At Allatoona, the swim and dive team practice Monday 5-5:45, Tuesday 7-8 pm, Wednesday 7:15-8:15 pm, and Thursday 6-7 pm at the Cobb Aquatic Center. They have swim meets on Fridays and Saturdays. Meets are up to three to four hours long, and you have to warm up for races and stay hydrated repeatedly. The maximum number of events you can compete in at a high school meet is four events, two individual and two relays. The county championship is at the end of January, and their state competition is in the first week of February. You have to hit a specific qualifying time to compete at these top meets. At these competitions, you will compete against exclusively high school swimmers and year-round competitive swimmers as well.

Varsity swimmer Kimberly Lila talks about swimming and the challenges swimmers face. “Because water is significantly denser than air, it has a lot more resistance, making it difficult for individuals to move through it swiftly and freely. This makes it significantly more difficult than other land sports. In addition, the temperature of the water has a significant impact on how well swimmers perform. You must learn all four swimming strokes, body position, breathing, turns, and sighting, among other things. Drills never seem to finish. You must always work on your form. Swimming is a difficult sport to master because it puts both the body and the mind to the test. It’s not fun to get up before 6 am to swim in freezing water for two hours. It’s the only sport where you’ll get yelled at for taking too many breaths.”