Swimmers Prevail Despite Challenges

Although the state meet was held at a different school, and having an alternate thrown in to the races due to a quarantine, the girls swim team walked out of the meet proud.

State looked a little different this season.. Originally, state took place in Madison, but the competition this year was hosted at Waukesha South.

Waukesha South has a big pool with plenty of bleacher space for parents and a couple alternates for each team. Instead of the usual frenzy for seats, this year was methodically spaced out.

Coach Stephanie Gebhard, despite this being her first year at HUHS, could tell that this season definitely wasn’t what was considered normal.

“It just created a whole different type of atmosphere on the pool deck,” Gebhard said. “This year we were all spaced watching the meet on two large screens that were live-streaming the event.”

To make matters even more chaotic, senior Rylie Christnovich was thrown into competing at state when Sophomore Lucie Smith got quarantined. Christnovich swam the fly and medley relay in Smith’s place.

Christnovich didn’t exactly know that she was swimming until Thursday, two days before the state competition. She explains that up until Wednesday, she wasn’t expecting to be put in and decided to just have fun in the pool. When Smith officially couldn’t swim, Christnovich had to quickly adapt.

“It was just kind of an alright, step it up, you gotta actually put in the effort instead of goofing off,” Christnovich said.

Smith kept faith, despite her inability to participate this season.

“I trust my girls to pull through and show what they have.” Smith said. “I think we came together and pulled through it.”

The team ended up hitting their individual goals and accomplishments at the meet. Gebhard is proud of the team and all that they have accomplished.

“The team did absolutely amazing,” Gebhard said. “They were so nervous, but you could tell from their faces when they walked out from behind the blocks that they were happy with their races. And, that is all that I could have asked for.”

With the decrease in pressure, as Smith was not competing to break the record and the girls were familiar with the Waukesha South pool, Christnovich said she was excited to be there.

“It wasn’t as intense. I think a little bit of pressure was taken off of the other girls. We were just able to just relax and have a little more fun with it. I was excited to go, that I got the opportunity to go,” Christnovich said.

Just happy to make it this far in the season, the team was happy to finish the season on a strong note.

“I am just so excited and shocked that we were able to get through the whole season.I got to see every one of the girls succeed and accomplish the goals they had set for themselves. Just the sheer joy makes me so happy,” Gebhard said.

Christnovich, this being her last year on the team, is glad to have made it through the entire season.

“It feels good being able to successfully finish a season with all this going on,” Christnovich said. “I didn’t think we were going to make it three weeks into this, and we were able to finish.”

The Hartford/Slinger girls swimming team is such a close knit group of girls, that anybody leaving or coming in feels welcome and supported. For both Christnovich and freshman Natalie Sutheimer, just being on the team and bonding with one another is a special part of this team.

“The most enjoyable part of the season was getting to bond and make friendships with teammates. Being able to hangout and spend time with them during the season,” Sutheimer said. “This is something that I really enjoy doing.”

Bittersweet, Christnovich is ready for new opportunities to meet new people and try new things, but will miss the friendships and team from HUHS.

You get unreasonably close to these girls that you're spending two hours, two hours plus, a day with in such a close proximity. Obviously I’m going to miss that a lot,” Christnovich said.

The girls swim team accomplished their goals and are happy with the finale of the season, despite their unique situation and the changing world.