The Aqua Knights are swimming through the season with grace.

Kings Senior Alex Allee says, “The season so far has been challenging but its also been really fun.” Alllee also swims for club swimming at YMCA Countryside.

The KHS swim team has two practices a week, every other day. One practice consists of what the team calls “dryland activities.” In dryland the swimmers train by lifting and running. Due to how much they swim and work out, they burn lots of calories, so Allee says she has to make sure to maintain a healthy and nutritious diet.

Jimmy Koloseike and Ben Matheus are two Knights swimmers who also swim for the YMCA Countryside team. They both talked about how swimming for two teams can be tough, but worth it.

Currently the men’s swim team has 11 members.

“With so many boys on the team and other teams being so good, it’s sometimes hard to stand out,” Koloseike said.

Matheus (pictured above) agrees.

“No matter how bad I wanna give up I just tell myself that in the end if I come out a winner than it was totally worth it.”

Swimmers also have certain “unusual” things they have to do, like shave. They shave so that they can get the dead skin off their bodies, cutting back on friction and water resistance so that nothing is holding them back and they glide through the water. Usually swimmers wait until state tournaments to shave, said Matheus.

Another technique swimmers use to improve their chances at winning at big meets is called “Taper.” Taper is when the swimmers take a few weeks to rest and a eat healthy diet so their bodies are in tip-top condition for their big meet. Kings swimmers start this year’s “taper” next week for districts, and then another week off for state, says Koloseike.

submitted photo