Christmas break was a lazy and fun time for many students, but not for the swim team. Students were required to practice during break if they wanted to participate in the swim meet occurring Jan. 14.

The practices have been rigorous and long in preparation for the upcoming meets of the swim season.

“We’re in the pool three days out of the week,” said senior Payton Hanby.

On the days when they are in the pool, the swim team works on sprints and endurance. The swim team has also focused on sprints for competition.

“I like 50 sprints a lot, because they’re just down and back,” said junior Laurie Wells. “They’re not like endurance where you pace yourself.”

Hanby, on the other hand, prefers to pace and challenge herself in endurance events.

“I like swimming for as long as possible, because that’s what I like to do,” said Hanby, who has started to swim the 500 event, which is the longest endurance event in swim trials.

The harder practices are all in preparation for the upcoming state swim meet.

“I feel like practice helped a lot of people doing 50’s and 100’s,” said Hanby. “It’ll help me pace myself in endurance events.”

Wells took a leisurely vacation over break and has had an awakening coming back to the rigor of swim practices.

“Practice has been hard all week, because we’re doing sprints. It’s intense,” said Wells.

Predictions for the state swim meet vary among the team. Senior Chris Taylor predicts a second-place finish behind Bentonville. However, Hanby disagrees.

“I’m hoping that we can get fourth, but that all depends on how much effort the team puts in, myself included,” she said.

The meet was a success for the students who attended holiday practices.

“I came in fifth out of eight divers,” said the lone diver for the Wildcats and senior Ethan Wilson. “I think overall we had 15 to 20 divers and I came out sixth out of all of them, so that’s a high point.”

Of course, practicing rigorously over finals week and break does not always ensure a winning performance come competition time.

“There was one point where I was really mad at myself,” said Wilson. “In practice I did a reverse dive perfectly, and in the actual meet I almost fell off the board, which was kind of a flop.”

This meet had a few different competitors than previous ones from Russellville and Siloam Springs. The new groups of students from these schools did different types of dives than Wilson.

“They do dives in the straight position, which is worth more than in the pike position,” he said.