Swimming the breaststroke at districts, senior Lauren Yanez vies for a spot in the regional meet on Feb. 12 and 13. photo by Karina Soares

story by Sarah Skirmont & Renata Isa

The varsity swim team competed at the district championship swim meet on Friday December 29th.

Although both the boys and girls teams came in third, 15 swimmers advanced to regionals. Outstanding swims were turned in by Freshman Andrew Ritz. His split time for the 50-yard Butterfly was 24.3 seconds and his 50-yard free time was 22.2 seconds. Sophomore Kaitlyn Williams advanced to regionals in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:06.2 seconds. Coming in at third in finals, Junior Tara Lore advanced to regionals in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:04.32 seconds and in the 500-yard with a time of 5:36.12 seconds.

Preceding the district meet, the team was not expected to place in the top three, according to the El Paso Times.

“Going in as an underdog, is pretty cool, because when you get a win or you get the chance to do something that you are not expected to do and you do it, it’s just the greatest feeling in the world,” said Freshman Andrew Ritz.

Jimenez agrees that beating the odds is very satisfying.

“ We did well as a team,” Jimenez said. “It was nice to beat the expectations.”