| Swimmers show little emotion while sinking opponents (3/08) | | Print | |
| Written by Vietanh Phuong Tran | |
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A faint chemical smell hangs in the air, emanating from a cold blanket of calm, forbidding water. A dim glow radiates from florescent lights, casting a morose glare reminiscent of interrogation rooms. Into this glow steps a Lowell swimmer, who strolls to the pool's edge and steps onto the starting block. To an onlooker, the surrounding tension seems to vibrate every molecule in the atmosphere, and a strange hum — is it the air conditioner? — reverberates his ears. Yet the swimmer's eyes are as calm as the water. The buzzer blares and the race is on. And as quickly as it began, it is over. The swimmer climbs out of the pool, eyes still calm. One distinguishing trait of Lowell swimmers is their lack of nervousness prior to meets. It's not that they are machines, nor have they disciplined emotion out of themselves. Instead, this calm stems from confidence. According to senior girl’s co-captain Stephanie Yeh and senior boys’ co-captain Henry Szeto, most of the season’s meets are practices for the more important All-City trials and finals. "The matches are not considered as big," Yeh said. "We always make it to All-City." Szeto feels that the meets are just for fun. In fact, most of the competition is within the team. "We can lose every swim meet and still get to take part in All-City," Szeto said. However, this doesn't mean team members slack off; they still try to win every race and improve their times. After all, they have a reputation to keep — they must uphold their decade-long dominance of the city's waters. Already, the team has defeated all four schools that it faced this season. The match against Wallenberg on February 29 was not even a contest. "Wallenberg forfeited our meet," Yeh recalled. However, the citywide trials and finals that start on April 2 will shake the calm from the Lowell swimmers. These events are the culmination of a year of preparation. There, participants prove themselves to their schools, and the experience gained through the season’s meets becomes valuable. “We’ve been working toward this all season,” Yeh said. This year the team has an additional advantage: Yeh competed with the Fog City Hammerheads club team and Szeto trained with the Rossi Pool club team. In their opinion, the lineup for Lowell is very strong this year, with battle-hardened seniors, including the other boys’ co-captain Allen Du and girls’ co-captain Tracy Tang, and speedy sophomores forming the majority of the unstoppable tidal wave. Watch them wash out their competition when the Cardinals enter their final meet against Lincoln High School today at 3:30 p.m. at King Pool. |
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