Tiffany PlattCabrini’s swim club, in its early development, is hoping to get more recognition. Not yet a varsity team, the club is hoping to accomplish as much as they can with all of the hard work that they put into practices every week.
In five out of the seven days of the week, the swim club manages to weight lift in two of the mornings, and swim for an hour and a half to two hours each day. If the swimmers cannot make it to practice, they must find some time in their schedule to swim on their own.
Gina Treml, junior swim club member, said, “I wish we could be a team this year, but we have to be a club for a year first. However, I think this gives us a chance to prepare for what being in a varsity team will be like.”
Although the club consists of nine women, and no men, they hope to live up to varsity status next year.
Jamie Ragukonis, the swim club coach, is trying to build the group of nine women so that they can become more versatile and comfortable during their competitions with other schools this year.
“I think we feel like a team because we do have some meets to swim in and we practice like a team would,” Treml said.
The club’s first meet, on Oct. 26, was against Notre Dame College, whom they lost to. It was a home competition against a team that had more players.
Ragukonis said, “I’m really happy with how the team did. Notre Dame had a few more swimmers and some of my girls were nervous.”
Regardless of having butterflies in their stomachs, the club managed to come out with a few individual first and second place winners in the 100-yard butterfly, the 400-yard freestyle relay and the 50-yard freestyle.
“Now that they have one meet under their belt, I think that they will do a much better job their second time around,” Ragukonis said.
The club’s second meet is set for Dec. 7, at home, starting at 1 p.m. against Kings College. “I have confidence in them and I know that all of the hard work and practice that they put in will pay off,” Ragukonis said. “I know that swimming can get boring at times, but it is really important to really want to be here and work together.”
