Sophia Goldberg sports editor
The varsity swim team lost to Culver City in their pre-league meet on Tuesday, April 3. Even though the team lost, the swimmers have several areas for improvement in the coming weeks as league begins.
Girls co-captains Eugene Chi and Jamie Kim are working to create a more collaborative environment for the girls teams this season.
“Jamie and I have done our best to get the girls to work together and understand that even though we are individuals, we can work together to be our best,” Chi said.
Chi competed in the 200 individual medley (IM) event, where she swims 50 meters of each of the four strokes: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. Chi won her race and credits her success to working on her skill and stamina during practice.
“Because 200 IM is all strokes, I work on the strokes I’m weakest at, which is breaststroke and freestyle,” Chi said. “I also work on my stamina to make sure I can finish.”
After competing yesterday in various freestyle and backstroke events, sophomore Charlie Levy is setting his season goal to break one minute in his main event: the 100 meter backstroke.
“I’ve never made it past the one minute mark, and it’s a threshold that you just have to hit,” Levy said.
Levy, who competed on varsity swim his freshman year as well, believes the intensity and order of practice has greatly improved this year.
“My first year, I was the young one and everyone was established. It was really laid back last year because we had a different coach,” Levy said. “This year, it’s a lot more structure. I’m now one of the people that’s in charge; I lead my lane. We do stricter workouts and I see myself getting better at swimming.”
As co-captain, Chi wishes that her teammates compete well in league this season, but also that they appreciate and enjoy swimming for the Normans.
“I’m really hoping the team will do well this year,” Chi said. “More importantly, the swim team has never really been unified before, so I hope that the team can realize we are friends and swim is not a burden after school but something fun!”
The Normans take on El Segundo on Thursday, April 12, to open league.