EHHS Co-op girls swim team has a successful 2022 season with wins against Branford and West Haven.
The EHHS Co-op girls swim team beat Branford on September 27th and West Haven on September 29th. Senior captain Abby Brooks claims she feels really good about the season: “I feel like we’ve reached our goal. We’ve won the two meets we’ve wanted to win. We weren’t sure we were going to win against West Haven. We had 8 on that day and they had 18, but we still won.” Junior 2nd year team member, Alexis Lamprea, says that they are not discouraged by losing because the team is pretty small. The team consists of only eleven girls and they often compete against teams double their size, making these huge wins.
The team meets twice a week during the fall season, usually on Tuesday and Thursday. The meets are usually a few hours long and each member competes in different strokes or events: freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke. The practices are intensive, ranging from 2-3 hours everyday. Abby works to inspire her team to keep going by making everything fun throughout the vigorous practices and long meets. “A lot of our meets I’ll tell everyone we just want good times out of it. We’re not expecting first, second, or third.” She believes that if they’re not having fun, there’s no point to swimming.
Abby loves competing for herself but also contributing to the team’s score with her individual times; “I like riding solo but with other people.” She also says swimming clears her mind. Alexis has been swimming since her childhood and took lessons at the former EHHS Tyler Street pool. Both Abby and Alexis compete in backstroke and freestyle. Unlike many other teams, they have a team manager, senior Julia Nargi. According to Abby, Julia helps with timing and brings a very positive attitude and spirit to the meets. Both Alexis and Abby love their teammates and manager, especially because of the close bond of the team. The team is now excited to take the next step as they have qualified for the Southern Connecticut Conference.
