Aqua Tribe gets feet wet at Monahans Invitational

The Aqua Tribe Maidens and Indians took fourth and seventh respectively at the Monahans swim meet on Oct. 29.

Through experience at the home tri-meet earlier in the month, they learned what they needed to work on in Monahans.

“The team worked mostly on starts and turns for the meet,” Coach Danielle Sims said. “Everyone ended up doing really well, cutting time from their last meet.”

The swimmers used each meet as a measuring stick for later.

“I needed to improve my long distance,” senior Faith Klassen said. “I had to shorten my time and get down how to speed up between 50s for the 500-yard freestyle.”

Senior Aaron Espinoza said that he tried a new event at Monahans.

“I tried out the 50-yard freestyle and ended up doing better than I was expecting,” Espinoza said. “Now I had to focus on bettering myself and my times, hitting the splits, working on my turns and beating the competition.”

Junior Meredith Rempel said that her performance at Monahans exceeded her expectations, but to get to regionals she wouldhave to push extra hard during practices.

“I think I did fantastic at the Monahans meet,” Rempel said. “I cut a whole two seconds off of my 100-yard freestyle, making my time one minute and seven seconds. I’m really proud of myself and just shocked at how much I’ve improved.”

Sims said the team is full of underclassmen.

“Starts and turns are what we worked on mostly, but because our team is young, they need to gain confidence,” Sims said. “We will just have to practice harder.”

With graduation came new team leaders. “As a senior, I try to give advice and keep the team unified because of our differences,” Espinoza said. “I really focus on keeping the team together because we’re better off that way.”

Seniors were role models for younger swimmers.

“Freshmen come to high school with a really scary image in their head,” Klassen said. “To step up as a leader, I try to let them know that they’re doing great and that high school isn’t as scary as they thought it would be.”

Klassen hopes to get closer to the school record in the 200-yard freestyle.

“I’m 15 seconds away from a record,” Klassen said. “That may sound like a lot, but I think I can get it with practice.”

The Aqua Tribe’s next meet will be in Lubbock on Nov. 11 at the Pete Ragus Aquatic Center.

Results for Monahans Meet

Maidens–fourth overall

200 yard medley relay (Regina Froese, Lena Martens, Faith Klassen, Meredith Rempel)–sixth (2:33.75)

200 yard individual freestyle (Klassen)–fourth (2:26.59), (Hannah Patterson)–17th (3:11.69)

50 yard individual freestyle (Klassen)–seventh (30.71), (Rempel)–eighth (30.77), Isabella Friesen–12th (32.64), (Whittney Easterwood)–13th (32.78), (Cassey Thiessen)–15th (34.47)

100 yard individual freestyle (Rempel)–fourth (1:07.44), (Froese)–10th (1:12.79), (Thiessen)–12th (1:14.38), (Friesen)–14th (1:16.28)

500 yard individual freestyle (Martens)–fifth (7:18.63)

200 yard freestyle relay (Froese, Rempel, Martens, Klassen)–fourth (2:07.90), (Easterwood, Thiessen, Patterson, Friesen)–seventh (2:18.30) 100 yard backstroke (Easterwood)–sixth (1:30.64), (Froese)–seventh (1:32.71), (Ashley James)–ninth (1:35.62)

100 yard breaststroke (Martens)–eighth (1:43.11), (Patterson)–10th (1:50.88)

400 yard freestyle relay (Easterwood, James, Patterson, Friesen)–seventh (5:22.46)

Indians–seventh overall

50 yard individual freestyle (Aaron Espinoza)–seventh (26.89), (Tristin Williams)–15th (29.61)

100 yard individual freestyle (Espinoza)–seventh (1:01.46), (Williams)–11th (1:05.93)