By: Jordan Frantz

On January 27, the Bellbrook Swim and Dive team celebrated their seniors at the DRAC with tons of activities, traditions, and congratulating of the seniors. The teams both earned second place at the meet, both falling short to Oakwood. 

Swim and Dive began their senior night with a jump into the pool with Hawaiian shirts on. They got to walk down the pool deck and jump off of their own block. 

“Senior night was also a lot of fun,” senior Andrew Cozad said. “Getting to see all of us who have been together for so long be recognized was a really cool experience.  It was also interesting to get to hear things like everybody’s future plans or their favorite part of swimming.  It was a great way to end our high school swimming careers.”

Senior night wasn’t the only success of the season. This season Peter Guthrie broke the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:16:70, which is seven seconds faster than the previous record. 

Matteo Krivitsky, a senior and first year swimmer, was awarded the Thad Camp State Farm Athlete of the Week on January 25. 

“He gets it done,” swim and dive coaches Rob Johnson, Karen Hulett, and Kathleen Magill said. “He does what is expected of him during practice without complaint and has made great strides over the season, improving both his stroke technique and his event times. Matteo is well respected by his teammates for good reasoning.”

Nineteen seniors were celebrated. Seven seniors have been swimming since freshman year: Ella Howard, Melody Poteet, Lorelai Wolverton, Drew Cozad, Mikuya Ford, Dixon Moore, and Josh Vawter. 

“I think swimming is very unique, as we do a lot of really cool things from diving off the blocks to flip turns every lap, and it’s a lot of fun,” Wolverton said. “The coaches plan lots of exciting practices and the team has awesome traditions that we love to do every year.”

Three of the seniors started swimming their sophomore year, six of the seniors started swimming their junior year, and three of the seniors started swimming their senior year. The differences in joining the team didn’t stop the special bonds that they made. 

“The swim team has great camaraderie and is always cheering for each other,” senior Mallory Horvath said.

“Every time I dive, I enjoy it. No matter if I have a good practice or a bad one, I always walk away feeling refreshed and better than I did before,” senior Ella Howard said.