As we head into the winter sports season, the spotlight turns to outstanding achievements made by the Erie Swim and Dive team, led by three captains Maggie Lane, Shelby VonLintel, and Allison Chappell.
Lane began swimming on a club team before joining the high school team her freshman year in 2020, which was a challenging year for everyone, Lane highlights the impact swimming had on her COVID year, “Swimming has helped me learn patience and perseverance.” Beyond the physical attributes swimming takes, Lane emphasized the mental aspects good and bad required by the sport.
Outside the limitations of the pool and being a very competitive independent sport, Lane feels the team members and camaraderie fostered most during the drives to and from swim meets “I met my best friends on the swim team. Just having so many experiences with them makes a lot of great memories.”
VonLintel expressed pride in the teams success, “I think the team has been super successful so far, we are really close to making state and we’ve also gotten a couple girls closer individually with relays” Unfortunately, in spite of that she drew attention to the under-appreciation of the team “I do not feel swim is recognized as much as it should be, last year we barely got the state send off, and it is not nearly as funded, so we don’t have enough funding for caps and tech suits for state or anything like that,” VonLintel underlined.
Chappell enunciated the intense dedication that can be required for Competitive swimming “Our swimmers work very hard, swim is a really tough and challenging sport physically and mentally, and a lot of it is in your head.” She then reiterated the lack of recognition for the team’s accomplishments, despite individual and relay qualifications for state.“Ana Lilly qualified in every single individual event, we have qualified in all of our relays for state multiple times”
VonLintel’s personal achievements came when she made it to state last year in part of a relay, “I was fast enough to be on the relay, so my coach put me in and I got to swim my fastest time that I’ve ever swam,” This was a big accomplishment for VonLintel as she has swam seven years now and most importantly continues to grow in the sport, emphasizing a significant memory for VonLintel.
Chappell began swimming as a sophomore due to an injury during freshman year. She pinpointed the power of the sport not just physically but mentally. “Joining swim really helped me channel all of my extra anger and work into something else. I love swimming because I can really grow, you never really plateau, the harder you work, the more you swim, the better you’re gonna be.” Chappell’s mindset to continually grow and improve is assisted by her involvement in swimming.
All three captains prioritize team unity and well-being. Chappell explains “Me, Maggie, and Shelby try really hard to make sure that everyone’s voice is heard, we’ve had a lot of girls come to us with concerns or ideas and we really try to incorporate those ideas.” The captains are now working on including fun initiatives like ‘swimmer of the week’, and continue to help with mental support throughout challenging meets.
The Erie High School team’s success and resilience continues to excel, as the captains Lane, VonLintel, and Chappell hope to shed more light on the dedication and achievements made by the team.
