Summer swim teams act as a break from intense competition

Mia Colclasure (’20), Eastside Staff

At Cherry Hill East, swimming is a highly popular sport that many students take part in. However, some swimmers only swim in the summer for their neighborhood team and not during the winter season.

The winter swimming season is often considered much more competitive and important than the summer seasons. Some of the winter teams practice all year long but not all athletes stay with them for the full season and practice with their summer teams.

Summer teams usually have one dual meet a week against other teams in their town and one or two championship meets with all the teams in their town or county. Their dual meets result in one of the teams winning, and the winning team moves up in their division.

For winter teams the meets are more serious. There is usually one meet a month that everyone on the team has a chance to swim in, but those meets aren’t about the teams winning. At those meets there are about ten teams at the pool and the swimmers don’t race for points for their team but they race simply to get new times and qualify for bigger and more important meets.

Swimmer’s times at summer meets are saved but are only used for meets in their county whereas the times for winter meets are usually ranked nationally.  Colleges pay more attention to how swimmers rank in the bigger meets rather than dual summer meets.

During practice winter teams usually put more stress on their swimmers. They make the practices harder and practice more often. On summer teams the coaches usually realize that an athlete’s success in that season does not have much effect on their future swimming careers. Winter coaches want to help the swimmers qualify so they could move on to swim for the national team or for their colleges.

Summer teams are more fun and easy going while the winter teams are very competitive. Some swimmers enjoy having the break of constant competition, while others prefer to stick with their winter teams in the summer to stay competitive. Some people only do it for fun so they only swim in the summer or join a less competitive winter team.