Her heart races, as senior Hailey Peckinpaugh dives off the block.

“I am preparing for the season by keeping a positive attitude, like during training and before meets and such,” Peckinpaugh said.

The teams season will begin Nov. 16 against New Palestine and Roncalli. Changing the way athletes train, eat and sleep can affect performances.

“I eat healthier, so I got more protein like chicken and rice in like eggs and egg whites and stuff like that. Off-season, I don’t eat as well. I eat a lot of ice cream in the off-season,” senior Lucas Young said.

During the off-season, these athletes are focused on staying in shape. Practicing outside of school also helps the swimmers to maintain their speed.

“So normal practice usually starts with dryland or a little bit of warming up. Then, we stretch, and then get into the pool. I try to attend all the practices and events with the team, even if I am sick or that kind of thing,” sophomore Maria Mears said.

These swimmers take nothing for granted.

“Practice is very difficult. We train very hard, but we try to keep joking and play good music and just stay positive throughout the entire practice and season,” Peckinpaugh said.

Rivals keep the athlete motivated

“Our biggest rivals would probably be Plainfield or maybe Franklin. We were pretty close to Franklin last year so they were pretty good,” Young said.

As swimmers have two practices a day, they are always working on perfecting their technique.

“My strongest race is probably the 100 meter freestyle. I have been constantly working to perfect my technique and get stronger. Although my weakest area would be the breaststroke, I’m just not very good at it,” junior Avah Wallischeck said.

From morning practices, to school, then another after school practice, these student athletes do not let the stress get to them.

“I don’t really have a weakest area yet. I’ve never been on a real team before so I didn’t really have any high expectations going into this season. It’s been a really good experience overall though,” freshman, Anne Chrisman said.