TOWAMENCIN – Walking through the sports lobby it is obvious that the swim teams have always been successful. The walls are covered in championship and state banners, displaying the results of the swimmers’ many hours of intense training. This year, the teams plan to keep the tradition alive as they enter into the first round of make-or-break competition.

Today, the teams travel to LaSalle University to compete in the district championships and they have been training a little differently to make sure they are fully prepared. The boys head coach, Jeff Faikish, described the routine that both the male and female swimmers take on prior to and during championship time:

”During the regular season, we do a lot of yardage [and] a lot of difficult sets, constantly challenging them aerobically, physically, [and] mentally to find a breaking point. [We] teach the kids how to swim fast during the regular season while they are exhausted [then] come championship time we start to do what is called a taper.”

The teams eliminate the extreme amounts of yardage that they swim during regular season practices and instead focus on individual races. As coaches Faikish and Matt Weiser put it, their practices become all about “quality not quantity” during preparation for the heavy competition.

The boys and girls have been putting their all into their training and at this point it seems to be paying off. Faikish described how the craziness of the swimmers is a good sign during tapering time so he gets the impression that “[the boys] are looking pretty good because they are getting really obnoxious.” Coach Weiser had a mutual feeling in regards to the girls’ team and feels that “they are very prepared at this point. They started swimming in November… and this is pretty much what they have been preparing for [since then].”

Looking forward to how the day will play out, Faikish predicts who will come out the most successful:

“I think [the] strongest swimmers are the upperclassmen- the ones who have been there and have been going through this year after year after year.”

He also added that the juniors, sophomores and solo freshman all look solid on the boys’ end. As for the girls, Weiser felt that some upper classmen are looking very solid for the competition and some juniors in specific. The girls’ team will also be taking four freshmen with them to LaSalle and hope that they will come out on top, as will the rest of the teams both male and female.

The teams will face a lot of tough opposition beginning today. The boys look to take down Upper Dublin, which as Faikish stated “is the favorite to win districts” and want to make North Penn the new school to fear. The girls seek to shut down Council Rock North and Conestoga as well as some of the more local high schools.  As for the swim team as a whole, Weiser thinks that “[they] are sitting in a really good place before the meet as far as how [they] stack up with the other competition. [They] are right up there at the top to be competitive with them.”

Faikish and Weiser have prepared their teams well for districts and expect that their effort along with the swimmers’ hard work will put at the top of the competition.  The student athletes strive for success and wish to add some more wins to their records… and some bragging rights over the local teams would be a nice bonus!