Swim Team Caps Off Strong Season With Trip to State

With a delayed start, a new coach, and COVID still present, this year’s girl’s swim team still found a way to make a splash at the State meet this year.  

It was a journey for most of the girls, but they fought for their chance, and at State, the swim team placed third overall with two state champions in juniors Katarina Stanic and Joceyln Zgola.

The top performance came from Zgola.  She was State Champion for the 200 freestyle and also placed second in the 500 freestyle.  She would also go on to receive Woodland Conference Swimmer of the year for the second year in a row.  “I am most proud of winning State in my 200 by 2 seconds,” Zgola said.  “I broke multiple records, won state, and had multiple personal best times.”

Through all the ups and downs, the team was still able to persevere through the challenges that came with COVID.  “I was seriously impressed with the team’s adaptability and resilience,”  coach Mel Carlson said.   “Most of the season we were in a constant state of unknown.  We were even unsure if there would be championship meets and what they would look like if they happened.  For some athletes, not having an end goal to look forward to would hinder motivation and work ethic but, the girls continued to come to practice every day and work harder than ever before.  Their willingness to adapt and their ability to be resilient in all aspects benefitted them in the end as they were ready for whatever opportunity arose and they completely blew us away with the results.”

The other swimmers were not the only challenge they had to overcome though.  With COVID-19 still being a big worry for the schools, they had to face that as well.  Junior Megan Mellock talked about how different practices were.  “We had limited swimmers in the pool,” Mellock said.  “We could only have a maximum of three swimmers on each side of the lane, with a maximum of five swimmers per lane.  We also had to wear masks at all times unless we were in the pool.”

After this year, the girls can only look forward to the next.  “The 2021 season will be another really strong year for the Greendale girls swim team as we will have everyone but 2 swimmers returning,” Carlson said.  “The girls never cease to amaze us with their talents and abilities so we are already excited to see what they can do.”  

Overall, it was an extremely successful season for the girls swim team, and next year could be the strongest year yet.