Senior Spotlight: Swim and Dive

This week we had the opportunity to interview some of the senior girls on the swim and dive team. Amara Nowak, Desare Lopez, Mallory Cawood, and Olivia Langner are four out of 8 seniors on the Grand Junction swim team. After being asked how they feel their season went, Mallory replied saying, “It went good. It was more challenging than how our other seasons have been because we didn’t have a pool most days and we had to move around the valley for different pools. We also had 42 swimmers this year, which is the most our program has ever had.” Desare added, “I feel like it forced a lot of the upperclassmen to step up and really take on some leadership roles, which I thought was really amazing. I think it made our team grow because we had to carpool together and create bonds that we wouldn’t have.” When they were asked what some of their favorite memories are, Desare said, “I would say our coaches. They are just really fun personalities and on days where we really weren’t feeling it Denise would try and make us laugh and build us back up to have a good practice.” Olivia added, “The little traditions of it too are so much fun. Like drinking chocolate milk on the bus and all of the little things that bring the team together.” Going into their highlights, Mallory said, “Placing second at conference. We really wanted to get first and we weren’t really sure going into the meet whether we would or not. Our team had almost all new swimmers and so for how few people had swam before we did really well.” After the girls were asked what they are going to miss the most, Mallory replied with, “I think just the team community. Especially with it being multiple schools you get to meet a lot of people that you usually wouldn’t meet. It is a community that is really fun to be around.” Desare continued saying, “Building each other up. Everyone always watches everyone's races. Getting out of the water exhausted and people are telling you how amazing you did is just a great community and family.” Lastly, they were asked what advice they would give to an incoming freshman athlete. Mallory said, “Embrace the process. It is very hard to learn swimming in general and also to build up endurance and become good at it. A lot of the time when people tryout for the team they give up on themselves and they feel defeated, but it takes a long time, even for regular swimmers.” These girls have had a great season and are pushing through their last days as a Palisade Bulldog.