The Erie Tiger Swim Team competed in their first ever meet on Wednesday, November 28th at Carbon Valley Rec Center in a dual meet against Windsor. They raced all of the girls in 11 races, as well as a dive event, to splash into their season with a great start.

This is Erie’s first year with a swim team at our own school. Prior to this school year, several girls from Erie swam and competed for other schools, but this year Erie High School introduced our very own girls’ swim team! There are 74 girls on the team and most of them race every meet. In regards to the new swim team at Erie, senior Shay Maruna said that, “It’s bittersweet leaving behind my coaches and teammates from other schools, but I’m so glad to be a part of this first time experience, and to get to bond with a lot of the Erie girls.”

Before the girls competed in their first meet they all traveled up to Estes Park over the weekend of November 17th to do a one night retreat at the YMCA of the Rockies. At the retreat, the girls got to know one another, bonded with each other, and hit the pool to practice, practice, and, you guessed it, practice before the official start of the season. Maruna said that “My favorite part of the retreat was getting closer with the girls I don’t usually talk to, and just bonding with everyone.” The retreat obviously payed off because before the girls knew it, their first meet started with a bang on Wednesday, November 28th.

The meet was a great start to the season with mostly the whole team racing, and already having five girls qualify for state!! In order to qualify for state in swim, you need to race a certain time in one of your races throughout any of the meets in the season, and these five girls already did that within their first meet! Kailey Pickering qualified in the 500 freestyle race with a time of 6:05. Peyton Irwin, Meredith Olson, Shay Maruna, and Alice Mazzetti also all qualified in their 200 medley relay with a time of 2 minutes and 3 seconds. Maruna, being part of the relay, said that, “Qualifying for state in the first meet was an unreal and super awesome feeling.” This was the first time that Maruna has made it to State in her high school career!
The swim season has had a great start to it with plenty more meets yet ahead. Come out and support your very own Erie swim girls, and let’s see how many more girls who can make it to state!