This year our school’s swim team said goodbye to a hardworking season and the prestigious Cap 8 Jan. 28.

Swim coach Justin Richards said it was “our most highly competitive conference.”

After a season of only four meets, the girls’ team took home two first places, and the boys’ got a third place finish.

The team is losing many seniors next year but are still positive about the future.

“We had a couple of freshman that had an immediate impact,” Richards said.

Even though the team will not be seeing Cap 8 again, the new conference that our school will compete in next year has some of the same teams from Cap 8.

Hopes are also high that the swim team will be competing against new teams more like ours.

“We’ll have a better shot because we won’t have as competitive swim teams to go against,” sophomore Olivia Rudolph said.

Rudolph qualified for regionals in the 50 free style.

Richards feels that some aspects of their competition will remain the same.

“It’ll still have a little bit of a cap 8 feel since it’s going to be a lot smaller it seems like,” Richards said.

Although this year the team didn’t go as far as they would have liked to with only four meets, they have hopes for next year.

Freshman Gideon Bezuidenhout was one of the two freshmen from the boys’ team to qualify for regionals and next year he wants to qualify for states. He swam in the 100 breast stroke.

Overall, the swim team had a year of improvement and ended well.

Richards said, “To stay motivated and finish all on such a high note, that was definitely a plus and a positive way to end the season.”