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Clear water. A splash. A form glides just underneath the surface. Then the veil of liquid separating it from the air above parts, and a swimmer’s arms and head cut the water with grace and seeming ease.
Of course, practice is a requisite for joining the dolphins, fish and other species of the aquatic world in such a demonstration of grace. That is why members of the swim team spend an hour and a half each day five days a week, in the pool, according to senior Henry Szeto, one of the three team captains. There they swim, swim and swim. “Some days we do sets of two laps or five or six 200 (yard laps)," Szeto said. "You get one-minute or two-minute rests.”
This season, the team will attempt to continue its league-wide dominance by extending a decade-long winning streak. “The boys haven't lost since 1997,” Szeto said. “And the girls never lost.”
Coach Art Octavio and assistant coach Jonathan Riley’s training regimen designed to ensure this continued dominance consists of warm-ups, interval training (in which swimmers race against the clock to complete a certain number of laps) and sprints that would leave recreational swimmers – if they’re not already dead – gasping for breath.
Practices have taken on a new dimension inside Balboa Park Pool, where the team swims while its long-time training center, Sava Pool, undergoes reconstruction. Here, they share space with Balboa High School's swim team. With 45 swimmers on Lowell's team alone, crowding is a problem. However, according to Riley, this situation builds team cooperation and results in a competitiveness that helps team members improve their skills.
The mental strength these practices require is needed for this year’s meets, since willpower plays a large part in winning. The nervousness that often comes before such judgment days is not a problem for this year’s team since "a lot of the varsity...have been through it" before, Riley said. In fact, a number of members swim in club teams all year long and gain experience before the season starts. "Everybody seems pretty focused," he said.
That focus should prompt good results when the team competes at 3:30 p.m. today at Rossi Pool against Washington High School.
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