As temperature drops and winter finally (sort-of) arrives, the sprinters of girls varsity swimming are ready to hit the water.

This year, the girls varsity swimming team has some new life. Said Coach Kelly from the English department, “We graduated a lot of seniors the last two years, so the vast majority of our team right now is new.” There are “a lot of freshmen,” adds Margaret Saunders ’16, the captain of the team.

As a result, the new swimmers “look very strong” based on the “great work they have been doing the last two weeks,” Kelly comments. The young talent shows great promise in coming years, too, since young swimmers will be able to develop through the program over time.

Moreover, “the team looks more like a team than it did last year,” says Saunders. Since winter can be depressing because of the cold, the girls “decorated the locker room and put quotes for everyone on the wall,” making the team “more spirited,” adds Saunders.

To ensure that everyone will stay committed to this varsity sport, Kelly has all the swimmers sign a unique contract at the start of the season. “We want to make sure that everyone is going to perform at a varsity level,” says Kelly. On the contract, the girls are not only asked to “work hard, practice hard and give their all during meets,” but also are required to meet the “expectations for the life outside the water,” which includes “taking good care of [themselves], supporting teammates, communicating with coach well outside of the practice.”

The first mock meet, or “time trial” as Kelly calls it, is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 9^th, and the first real meet will be on Saturday, Dec. 12^th, against Greenwich Academy, which “tends to be very strong” according to Kelly. The goals for this meet will come down to individuals. It will serve as an opportunity to “get a base line for everybody, to see where we are, even just in terms of improvement from time trials, and use this to start figure out what events people will be swimming later in the season,” says Kelly.