Bloomington High School North, Nikean, 2011, Page 105

Description:	During the 100 meter butterfly race, senior MikeyDedek surges toward the finish line. The swimming team has faced challenges this year. Thebiggest adjustment on our team was the moraleof our team. Alex, the assistant coach, he makes uswork hard because he cares about us, Dedek said.Photo by Raven Sherman ? ——-diving team finds ways to win meets,without divers.^jjf^The begirining of every athletic event is a fresh start.The score is 0-0 and both teams have an equalopportunity to become winners. The boys swimteam, however, does not begin with this equal opportunity.This year we did not have any male divers on NorthBoys Swirrrrriing and Diving Team, sophomore MaxIrwin said. Without divers, we started each dual meetdown by 13 points if the other team had three clivers,which most did.Irwin, swimmer and school record-breaker, explainedthat to make up for this deficit, the team had to workhard in practice, enabling them to pull out many winswithout the help of clivers.I diink the team did a great job dealing with the factthat we didnt have divers, and I know there were atleast a few individuals who worked even harder at meetsbecause of it, Irwin said.Senior Luke Wisen, a former competitive diver, wasntable to return to the sport after a back injury last swimseason. Even though he isnt a participating diver, he stillunderstands and stresses the importance of diving to theoverall score.Divers often get those crucial points needed to takethe lead in a meet, Wisen said. A first place finish doesjust as much good to the team as getting a first place finish in a swimrning event.Keeping this in mind, head swimming coach, DavidTanner, alerted the team members of the situation butdidnt let it get them down. In contrast, he used it as away to make the team better.[The team] didnt even know about it until I explained how the scoring works, Tanner said. At firstthey were shocked about the 13-0 deficit, but they usedit as motivation to catch up. JTie diving deficit, as wecall it, has probably made us a better swim team.Despite the diving deficit, the boys on the teamachieved many of their goals and are looking forward tonext years experiences.The swimmers have done 824 life-time bests in thenevents so far, Tanner said. Max h^vin broke a schoolrecord in the 100 butterfly. Weve been close to theschool record in both freestyle relays. The next twoyears will be exciting.Story by Shannon Jager
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloomnorth/id/7098
Collection:	Bloomington High School North

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