By Whitney Kiepura
Executive Opinion Editor
In the basement of St. Viator High School, the boys’ swim and dive team took on not one team, like the regular dual meets, but eight. This invite was another tough challenge for the boys, who placed seventh out of nine teams at the meet.

Senior varsity member Decoda Selzer said, “A lot of private schools have their own pools, so they can get more hours to practice.”
Some standout performances were sophomore  Andrew Younger’s time of 2:03.93 in the 200-yard IM. IM stands for individual medley. In this event each athlete swims 50 yards of each stroke.  Selzer finished the 100-yard freestyle race with a time of 56:25, and senior Ryan Konieczka with a time of 1:05.30 in the 100-yard backstroke.
But regardless of success, the boys are always there to cheer their teammates on, instead of relying on short skirts and pompoms on the pool deck to keep spirits high.
When a swimmer gets to the end of the pool, his teammates will stand on the end of the pool deck, raise their arms above their heads and flutter their hands as they cheer. This sign of encouragement tells the swimmer to keep pushing himself to the finish.
“It means more when your teammates cheer,” junior Matt Rendino said. “Having cheerleaders wouldn’t really help the swimmers. But it probably would raise moral.”