By Shannon Smith
Executive In-Depth Editor
The girls’ swim team traveled to St. Viator Saturday, Sept. 13, to compete in the 24th annual St.Viator Invite. The team finished second after St. Ignatius, which was what the team was expected to do according to head coach Alfonso Lopez.
“I thought the team did outstanding at the meet,” Lopez said over email. “Lots of great swims, lots of gutsy swims.”
According to Lopez, the best race of the day was the 100 yard butterfly, which was the only individual event that had a first place finish. It was swam by sophomore Samantha Berkley with a time of 1:04.97.
According to Berkley, she was very surprised when she saw that she had won.
“I tried my hardest during that race, and there’s nothing I would have changed,” Berkley said, “I knew it was going to be close, but I gave it my all.”
Sophomore Janae Dawson also did very well in the 100 yard butterfly by tying for fourth with a time of 1:07.70. Senior Niki Neumann had two outstanding performances in the 200 yard individual medley with a fourth place finish and a time of 2:24.13 and another fourth place finish in the 500 yard freestyle with a time of 5:46.70. Junior Betsy Rozow took second in the 50 yard freestyle with her best time of the season,  25.75, and the 200 yard freestyle relay of sophomore Gracie Dix, senior Rachel Rozow, Betsy Rozow, and Berkley did outstanding, finishing second with a time of 1:44.87.
Berkley did not expect the team to do as well as they did because of how good the teams are that they were up against, but knew that second was the team’s goal because that’s what place they got last year.
Although it’s the beginning of the season Berkley already thinks this season will go great because the team is improving quickly and already dropping times.
At this point in the season their record is 1-1 in dual meets with a second place win at St. Viator. Their next meet is the Maine West Invite Tuesday, September 16.