Working hard is one of the philosophies the girls co-op swim team with Batavia is taught in order to compete.

“My philosophy comes down to as being as skill-wise as possible. “We work hard in order to get ourselves in the best shapes as possible and be both physically and mentally tough,” head varsity coach Nick Perry said.

The team’s first swim meet against West Aurora proved to be a successful match.

“Our first competition was a win against West Aurora. We felt decent, it was a meet we were expected to win. If we didn’t win it will raise a lot of questions of why we did not. I felt like we have been moving forward since then,” Perry said.

The team needs to work hard.

“My goal for every season is to try to win as much stuff as we can. We’d like to win a conference and sectional title in an individual race or as a team. We did win one last year so we’d like to improve on an individual title. We want to qualify as many people to the  state meet,” Perry said.

Last season, the team had three state qualifiers: Senior, Lindsey Bruce and juniors Natalie Nelson and Myanna Cook from Batavia. This year, these girls hope to qualify again.

“Me, Myanna and Natalie are trying to work as a team since we are all captains this year and we try our best to stay cheery and positive so the team is at our best,” Bruce said.

The girls practice consists of a mile warmup, another mile or two swimming workout, and then a cooldown lasting two hours. Afterwards, the girls lift for an hour in the weight room.

“As for training we always go on the faster interval so we can get stronger and work hard in and outside the weight room, especially in gym so we gain some muscle. We work as a team and that’s what will give us the drive to go to state again this year,” Bruce said.

The mental aspect of racing is taught in practice as well.

“We try to do a lot of race rehearsals and practices. I ask the girls to race during practice and overcome the hurdles of being tired during a race,” Perry said.

However, one obstacle the team has to go through is the lack of athletes on the team.

“We have always been a smaller team. We need to find some people who need to score some points for our team that are not the top girls in our team.

The team is looking for their best by seasons end.

“We started off the year with 3 and 0.We have been facing some tough teams. Results might not be there yet but by the end of the season we are hoping they will be there,” Perry said.