By Christina Sheehan

In the world of Steinert swimming, Alaina Elliot has proven herself as a talented and competent athlete. She got her start early, and started swimming competitively at 8 years old, “ I grew up having a pool in my backyard and because of this, I always had a love for the water,” Alaina explained, “when I found out swimming was an actual sport it blew my mind. Getting awards and recognition for something I love doing? – Yeah, sign me up!”

When asked what her favorite memories of competitive swimming were, Alaina revealed that “my favorite memory of high school swim is probably the MCTs my sophomore year. There I went the fastest I ever swam in my favorite event (the 100 fly) and came second away from beating the school records from the 1990s.” In addition, she also mentioned that “another close favorite memory of mine was during my junior year where the team had a group scavenger hunt. It was a great bonding experience and just an overall fun time.”

“This year was so awesome and I enjoyed every moment of it. It was great to get back to competing with other high school teams,” Alaina said. She also added that “Although this season I wasn’t able to break the record of 1:00.00 for 100 fly or get as close as I was to it before Covid hit, I still reached a personal goal for the season and was able to swim a 1:03.00.”

When Alaina was asked to give advice to any future competitive swimmers, she advises them to “just remember that swimming is a mental and individual sport. It will teach you how to become comfortable with your own mind and challenge yourself in ways that personally I think no other sport can.” Alaina also revealed to “don’t be intimidated by this though and use it as a motivation to become a better swimmer and a better person as well. Focus on your own times and own goals and that is how you will exceed in this sport.”

By Gracyn Matakonis

A small, but mighty winter sport here at Steinert had a very successful season, Winter Track. After a long winter of chilly practices, this athlete's season is coming to a successful close. For this individual, her track season not only consisted of running but jumping as well. Olivia Matakonis, a senior sprinter and jumper on the winter track team, had a very successful season. This winter, Olivia participated in events such as the 55m dash, 200m dash, 4x4000m dash, long jump, and triple jump. Olivia beat her all-time PR (personal record) in the long jump with a jump of 15ft at the Mercer County Championships. Not only does she participate in the long jump, but she also does a similar, yet very unique jump called the triple jump. While a long jump consists of a sprint with one long jump, a triple jump consists of a sprint with three jumps before landing in the pit. This season Olivia jumped a 29.9 feet triple jump. She has an all-time PR of 30.3 ½ft in the triple jump. Olivia is very excited to continue jumping for her senior spring track season. Since this is her final year at Steinert, she hopes that more female jumper feet will land in the same sandpit in the future.