The Renton High School swim team have had an excellent season this 2018-2019 school year, claiming 7 out of 11 meets victorious (some of which being triple meets), placing the team 5th in the league.

The instructors included Coach Diane, Luke, and Jeremy.

Last year’s record was also 7 wins and 4 losses, but this year having a positive points scored to points against ratio, improved by a significant 29 point difference.

The Renton High School swim team practices at the Hazen Pool, right after Hazen’s swim team practices, requiring a van trip to Hazen High School for practices.

The rules of swim are as follows, each athlete competing will be placed into separate heats of their individual races (50 yard, 100, 200, etc). When the heat begins, the athlete will prepare to compete. A row of swimmers line up before the starting blocks and wait for the whistle.

Swimmers either get ready on the blocks, or in the water (for backstrokers), and await the buzzer to set the athletes off.
● If the swimmer had left before the starting buzzer, it would be declared a false start
● When the swimmer touches the lane line, the athlete is disqualified
● If the swimmer does not touch the opposing wall at the end of the length, the swimmer could be disqualified
● If an athlete competing in a relay leaves before the current swimmer, the whole relay may be disqualified

The scoring is based off of whoever makes the top places, scores the most points against the opposing team, and progressively decreases as the place decreases.

The upcoming Renton High School swim captain, Jack Anderson, has some insight to the team’s plans and his opinion on the experience stating,

“The 2018-2019 season contained numerous ‘personal records’ for myself and for many of my teammates. My hope and goal for the next season is that I can use my position as captain to motivate both new and veteran swimmers and get everyone to swim their best.”

Mausali, another swimmer from the Renton High School varsity roster says,

“This swim season for me overall was very challenging. Had a tough time improving, and felt really bad watching the beginners come up out of nowhere with some amazing speed. They did inspire me to keep going same as my coaches and upperclassmen. They pushed me just enough to get my spirits high to keep going. Making it as an alternate for state and being able to see the growth of all the swim team members. Sad to see them go but its only more inspiration to be just as fast.”

The swim team focuses on encouraging and persevering through the pain, striving and putting as much effort as they can even though faced with challenges such as their method of commuting to and from their practices, and the times allocated to their practices that work with their schedules. Overall, they hope to better themselves and make the time given to them count, one of their time stamps even stating, “MAKE IT HURT!”