The district tournament for the girls’ swim team summarized what their entire season was about—winning. On Oct. 24 Trinity hosted the district swim meet that included highly ranked Lake Highland Prep and Montverde Academy. Seeded third going into the meet, the girls won the meet because all the members of the team put on an exceptional preformance. The district championship was the cherry on top of an exceptional season.
Although the season is not over, the Girls Varsity Swim team is already on pace to have one of the best years in Trinity history. The team is breaking records left and right. Three individual girls and two relay teams have qualified for All-American considerations.
Early in the season, the team traveled to Tampa on Sept. 26 to compete in the Tampa Bay Classic Swim Meet. The exclusivity of the meet made it one of the most important of the season. It was an invitation-only meet, where 12 of the top teams in the state competed. The girls squad did not only compete in the event—they won the whole meet.
Senior Caroline White, junior Claire Maiocco and sophomore Grace Olivardia swam times that distinguished them from their competition. The National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association, or NISCA, is an organization managed by USA Swimming. This organization sets standards each year for athletes to reach. These times are derived from the top third of the top 100 times of all high school swimmers in the entire country over the past three years.
There are two different distinctions for the award, automatic qualifiers and consideration qualifiers. Being an automatic qualifier means an athlete’s time has automatically qualified for the top 100, regardless of the other times. All-American consideration times are for those that are a fraction off of the top 100 projections. These times are included if not enough girls fill out the top 100.
Maiocco received an All-America automatic qualification in the 100-meter butterfly. She will hold this spot for the remainder of the season. But she will not stop there. The junior currently holds the school, state and national records for the 100-meter butterfly. Maiocco broke the national record, one that stood since 2003, by over one second. This may seem trivial, but in an event consisting of only four laps, she blew the previous record out of the park. Her best time came during a meet last year when she swam a time of 53.87 seconds.
Though all of these records are unbelievable achievements, Maiocco stays humble when asked what it means to break these records.
“When you get a best time you are like ‘Yes! All the work paid off!’” Maiocco said.
White and Olivardia both swam All-American consideration times this season. White reached the consideration time in 100-meter breaststroke, and the sophomore reached it in the 100-meter backstroke.
Arguably the team’s greatest accomplishment came during the Oct. 9 meet at Montverde Academy. The relay team consisting of White, Maiocco, Olivardia and sophomore Summer Heidish broke the national record for the 200-meter freestyle relay. Because of the alternative distance of Monteverde’s pool, it was the ideal time to become national record holders. The squad obliterated the previous record, beating it by more than two seconds. Short course meter pools are rarely swam in high school meets. Their record was amazing, but the squad will look to break it in a short course yard pool, one they swim in more often.
To begin the season with this record was all the girls could focus on, but now they can aim even higher. They will all continue to work hard in order to make their names known throughout the swimming world.
“We want to have our name known,” Olivardia said. “All the work we’ve put into this we don’t just want to leave and no one remembers us.”
Achieving these times are something that most athletes would consider unfathomable. The incredible times they swim directly correlate to how hard all the girls work. The varsity team, made up of about 10 of the fastest girls, practices on average nine times a week—seven times in the pool and two times in the gym.
Practicing this much is the only way they are able to stay in shape. In addition, almost all of the girls swim on the school-sponsored club team, Trinity Prep Aquatics. Being on this swim team comes with the obligation to swim 49 weeks out of the year. Although tedious at times, these girls agree that this type of dedication is required to reach the level of swimming they have.
“[We] cannot be at this level of swimming that we are all at if [we] don’t swim year round,” Maiocco said.
More impressive is the remarkable depth of this year’s team. In the past, the team has advanced on average about five girls in individual events and 16 to race in relay events to the State Meet. This year they are looking forward to sending a considerably larger number of athletes because the depth of the team continues to expand.
Needless to say, this team is one for the ages. For years to come, you will be able to witness the impact the 2015 Girls Varsity Swim team will be clearly seen. Their legacy will be felt for years to come.
Caroline White described it in the simplest of terms when saying, “it’s cool to think that we are the fastest group of kids that Trinity has ever had.”
