Taking the highest finish in school history at both the COMO Invitational as well as the Class 2 State Championship. Conference champions, a 3-peat win at the Winnetonka Invitational, and senior Reagan Graybill taking the state title in two events. This season the girls swim and dive team made history.
Starting out the season strong the team took the first place finish at the Winnetonka Invitational Dec. 6 and 7 for the third year in a row. Senior Ellie Hanchette attributed the success to the team’s energy.
“When you know you’re in the running to win, everyone gets more serious. Our team brings the energy, and I think that helps us to our victories,” Hanchette said.
It was the first season under a new coach Ty Foxwothy, and practice structure and intensity looked different than previous years.
“Our training focused on building endurance, speed and strength while us mentally tough,” Graybill said. “We put in the work everyday, which gave us confidence in big meets.”
Going into January, the team swam at back-to-back invitationals. The team took a third place finish at the COMO Invitational Jan. 10 and Jan. 11, the highest the team has placed in school history. The next weekend Jan. 17 and 18th the team competed in the KC Classic Invitational where they secured another third-place finish.
“That’s pretty tough going back-to-back two weekends in a row,” Foxworthy said. “But the positive attitudes played a big role in that, having a positive mentality is such a big thing in this sport, so having that all week and into KC Classic, we were able to have great swims.”
The team didn’t stop there. In their first season swimming in the Gold division, they earned the conference championship Feb. 8 for the first time since 2018. Foxworthy said conference champs is something she was expecting for the season.
“I saw the potential for everybody, I challenged people to try new events this season and they improved a lot, so we had a lot of finals swims, podium finishers and strong relays,” Foxworthy said.
To finish out the season, the team took 9th at the Class 2 State Championship Feb. 20 and 21, the highest they’ve ever placed, and Graybill took the state title in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100-yard breaststroke.
“It was a huge relief,” Graybill said. “I had been working toward that goal for years, especially after finishing third the past two seasons. Finally winning felt like all the hard work paid off.”
