Success in the Pool - Colgan Swim at States

By: Lincoln Puls

April 3, 2024

   The swim teams success this season led up to placing an impressive 8th in states, which was held on Wednesday, February 14. With any sport and any game or meet the pressure can be immense, for some it doesn't affect them and for others it can be a big deciding factor in their performance.  

   “In regionals we had high expectations because we had just won districts but going into states it was more of an experience than pressure” said Sophomore Michael Utley.  

   The preparation for meets is important but for something as big as states the training regimen might get harder, slow down or even not change at all. 

   “For States preparation, we continued with our training and a few days out, began to ‘Taper…’” said swim coach Kristen Misencik.  

“…our taper involved decreasing the yardage a little bit every day...” Misencik and the team also focused on long warm-ups and cool downs and spent time on intense sprints sets with lots of recovery time. With this new training style before a meet, there could be challenges adapting to the new style of training, or with the easier training they might now have any issues at all.  

   “The Colgan Swim & Dive Team did not have any setbacks this season,” said Misencik, “everything went as planned and we achieved all our goals” however some swimmers like Utley had issues dealing with injuries and pains nearing the meet.  

   The team’s goals and expectations were high, but they reached all their goals, they won back both district titles, and both the boys and girls placed first over Colgan’s rival, Forest Park. For regionals, their goal was to place higher than previous seasons, as explained by Misencik.  

“The boys and girls crushed that goal, and both placed second,” said Misencik.  The boys’ team placed second to Patriot High School and the girls’ team to Battlefield High School. Colgan also had seven gold medalists in regionals and the boys team broke a 200-freestyle pool record at regionals.