Clinton swimmers make gains against Central
Clinton High School’s swim team showed improvement despite a loss to Knox Central on Thursday, Nov. 5, at the Clinton Community Center, as Coach Laura Knott challenged her swimmers to compete outside their comfort zones.
The meet also provided an opportunity to evaluate the progress of Clinton’s middle school swimmers, who share the same head coach.
“This meet against Central, I pushed my swimmers to stretch themselves, and I put them in a lot of events,” Knott said. “We put them in five events, so each one of them had to swim two relays, two individual events that they normally swim, but then they also had an exhibition event. It didn’t count for any points; it just gave them a time.
“So I really challenged them to go beyond what they thought they could do and challenged them with swimming something that they’ve never done before or just doing strokes that they might not be as comfortable with doing,” she added.
“We had some fantastic swims across both our middle school and high school teams, with several swimmers dropping time and making significant improvements.
“Nancy Estill swam the 100-yard butterfly, and that’s been a struggle stroke for her in the past. She’s really strong in butterfly, but when it comes to swimming it 100 yards rather than 50 like she does in the summer, it’s a lot more challenging, but she did amazing. She got first place in the 100 butterfly and ended up dropping time in both the 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke.
“Lucy Bailey made an impressive improvement in the 50 butterfly.
“Mateya Mogilski is continuing to make strides in the 200 individual medley and 100 backstroke. I had Mateya swim the 200 IM for the first time this season, and she did a great job.
“Leah Thelen also had a great night, improving her times in both the 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke. She ended up being our high-point winner with 14 points.
“We also saw some great performances from our male swimmers,” Knott added. “Jerrod Emery dropped time in the 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke; Cayden McGaha improved in the 100 backstroke; and Collin Jackson had a strong improvement in the 100 freestyle and scored 13 points for us as our second-highest point scorer.
“While Thursday night’s meet against Central didn’t end with the team victory we were hoping for, it gave us something just as valuable: an opportunity to learn, grow, challenge ourselves and see the hard work our swimmers have been putting in pay off.”
Middle school swimmers
“Our middle school swimmers continue to gain valuable racing experience, and it is exciting to watch their confidence and abilities develop with every meet,” Knott said.
“We also had some great relay efforts, with our middle school girls’ medley relay finishing in 2:51.97, nearly 2 seconds faster than their previous time.”
Middle school swimmers include eighth-graders Collin Jackson and Molly Thelen; seventh-graders Lucy Bailey, Alexa Weaver, Katherine “Kate” Breeden and Annabelle “Belle” Khamkhounnavong; and sixth-graders Autumn O’Gorman, Christopher “CJ” Poutre, Theia Siler and Alphonse Cross.
Working
to improve
“Of course, not every swim goes exactly as planned, and that is part of the learning process,” Knott said. “We had some opportunities to work on stroke technique, turns, finishes, relay order and race strategy. These are all things we can take back to practice and use to become stronger, smarter and more confident swimmers. Sometimes the most valuable lessons come from the races that don’t go perfectly.
“I am incredibly proud of the effort this team continues to put forth. Every practice, every race, every improvement and every lesson is building toward something bigger,” she added.
Clinton returns to the pool Thursday, Nov. 12, against Grace Christian at the Clinton Community Center.