Dani Hume, junior, waits for the official to blow the whistle to start the 200-yard medley relay. Hume and the rest of the girls swim team traveled to Columbia for the COMO Invitational on Friday, Jan. 9. Hume competed in the varsity portion of the meet, Friday Jan. 9, and Saturday, Jan. 10 was the j.v. portion of the meet.

Lauren Dooley, sophomore, finishes her last lap of the 200-yard freestyle. “I definitely think the third 50 of the 200 free is the hardest mentally, but the last 50 really gets to you,” Dooley said.

Pushing off of her underwater kicks, Annie Holubowski, junior, begins the second 50-yard stretch of the 200-yard individual medley. The 200-yard individual medley consists of 50 yards of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.

Joseph Schoedel, swim coach, and Paige Blom, junior, reflect on her performance in the 50-yard freestyle. Blom placed 2nd in the 50-yard freestyle, with a time of 23.90.

Lindsay Wang, junior, pulls ahead of her competitors in the 100-yard butterfly, earning a time of 1:05.24. Wang said that she looks forward to swim meets so she can try her best to get new times.

While Abby Mangan, junior, swims the final four laps of the 500-yard freestyle, Avery Crecelius, senior, shakes the counter, which tells Mangan to swim faster. Mangan finished the race with a time of 5:56.91.

Natalie Lorber, senior, sophomores Lexi Kidin and Lauren Dooley and Grace Hagar, freshman, huddle up before swimming the 200-yard freestyle relay. The team finished with a time of 1:46.77.

Grace Hagar, freshman, keeps her arms ready to dive into the third stretch of the 200-yard freestyle relay. Hagar uses a relay start, which involves an arm swing into the dive to generate power with a perfectly timed entry, which often saves up to a second compared to individual starts.

Lucy Favazza, freshman, pushes off the wall into her 100-yard backstroke. Favazza swam a personal best time of 1:08.83 at COMO.

Lauren Stein, sophomore, fixes her goggles before stepping on the block to dive into her 100-yard breaststroke. Stein finished her race with a personal best of 1:10.10 and placed 11th overall.

Coach Schoedel speaks with the 400-yard freestyle relay team after their race The relay consists of Natalie Lorber, senior, juniors Dani Hume and Paige Blom and Lauren Dooley, sophomore, who earned 9th place with a time of 3:44.00. The meet concluded with Varsity Girls earning 76 points, placing 14th overall.