When Molly Holubowksi, freshman, left the Marquette Relays swim meet on Tuesday, Dec. 7, the girls swim team ranked second place. 

Several days later, Holubowksi’s phone buzzed with notifications. The girls swim team group chat was celebrating a pleasant surprise: first place. 

“I just got chills, and I was so happy,” Holubowski said. “It was just so cool to see how excited they [the coaches] were and then how excited my team was.”

MHS was originally awarded second place due to point calculation errors, but after a recount, the team was named first. The team has earned first place at the meet since 2013. 

Upholding the tradition of winning the meet meant a lot to the team, Holubowski said.

“If we keep working hard in practices and everyone on the team is getting along well, I think we can always do really good in the Marquette Relays and be some good competition,” Holubowski said.

The Marquette Relays was Holubowski’s first swim meet for the MHS team after transitioning from club swim. 

Holubowski said the main difference between club swim and MHS girls swim is the team atmosphere and connectedness between the swimmers. 

“The friendships that I am making on high school swim; I’ll probably carry them out for so long,” Holubowksi said. 

Joe Schoedel, head swim coach, said the error in point calculations stemmed from changes made in the past few years. Coaches proposed “B” relays, or two relays per event, instead of just “A” relays, or one relay per event, to allow more swimmers to participate in the meets. 

Schoedel said winning the first meet of the season and preserving the eight-year tradition was a boost of confidence for the swimmers. 

“I think a lot of the girls think that we are not as fast as we were last year and for them to win [the meet] and show that we can still compete with the best of the best out there and still win was a huge boost of confidence for sure,” Schoedel said.

Though keeping up the legacy was a pleasant surprise, Schoedel said the team did not enter the meet solely with the intent to win. 

“I just said swim fast, swim clean, cheer for each other,” Schoedel said. “No matter what happens, we’ll see where we fall at the end.”

Ellen Klasing, assistant swim coach, said a streak of winning always comes with expectations to uphold it. However, like Schoedel, Klasing said the coaches did not focus on winning, but more on allowing the swimmers to try their best.

“It’s a relay meet, so you really are swimming for each other and for your team,” Klasing said. “So, that’s what we told them going into it: ‘We want you guys to do your best. Go out there and show us what you got’.”

Because the team is smaller this year, the team and coaches were happy to have received second place at first, Klasing said. However, once the results were recounted, and the team earned first place, Klasing said everyone was ecstatic. 

“I would love to continue this streak, but my mentality as a coach and with the girls team and the boys team is that as long as they’re doing their best and they’re working hard and they’re putting out their best times and they’re supporting each other, the placement isn’t really what I’m focused on,” Klasing said.