By Avonlea Cummings
Hometown Weekly Sports Reporter
Echoes of cheers rang against the four walls of the Westwood High swimming pool as the Westwood swim team and the Dover-Sherborn swim team came together for their mid-January swim meet. The teams went head-to-head against one another in multiple heats, displaying skills, determination, and speed. As for the boys Dover-Sherborn swimmers, they would come out just short in the evening’s meet with a final 56-82, and the girls’ team for the Raiders swam past the Wolverines 96-84.
Flips-turns, dives, and more the Dover-Sherborn team was working diligently throughout the meet to compete against Westwood and improve their personal times and race strategies. It was a time to focus on the basics to help launch them into the pool with speed and ease. Head coach Carly Eckles has been coaching the Raiders for the past nine years, and this is her third year as varsity head coach. Eckles shared her thoughts on the outcome of the meet and how the environment of the pool can influence the atmosphere of the meet.
“It went how I expected, Westwood has a very nice showing, they have so many athletes and to see the kids hang with them is a lot of fun. I love this environment because it’s so closed off and it gets loud, which is really fun for the kids to get loud. I’m very happy we had some great swims and this was a great way to end the meet,” said Eckles.
Each swimmer on the Raiders competed, giving their all in each heat. With great camaraderie between teams, the swimmers would cheer loudly at the end of the laps celebrating their teammates. Swimming is a unique sport for an athlete as it is an individual and team sport all in one, typically reaching for personal bests with the support of teammates. However, the Raiders had a different mindset headed into the Westwood meet. Head coach Eckles shared how she helps out each swimmer between heats and how the team’s overall focus on the evening’s match was on race strategy.
“There are little things we can do in practice but it is really all about the mindset. Their bodies are capable of doing things as long as their minds let them. So for me, as every kid has their own thing, I remind them of this or that. We knew this would be a meet to focus on race strategy, we were focusing how how each race strategy is for them, and what their goals were, and tried not to make time-based goals tonight. We wanted to look at something to improve on that wasn’t time-based but more so strategy-based,” said Eckles.
Head coach Eckles was impressed to see the swimmers performing better than at the beginning of
the season even after the holiday break as well. “It’s always hard coming off the winter break since so many kids go away, so seeing them hang on or be better than where they were previously earlier in the season is a lot of fun. I went through all of their best times from this time last year and compared them. So to show them they are three seconds faster this year compared to last is really fun to do, it’s one of the black-and-white things about swimming that is great. We are able to show them when we ask them to do hard things in practice, this is why. I’m looking forward to having a healthy squad, and also watching them make more cuts. They all have goals that they want to do and so helping them hit those goals is what it’s all about,” said Eckles.
The Raiders will travel to the Dedham town pool to compete in a meet against Medfield High on Thursday, January 18th. The meet is set to begin at 4 PM.
