As the high school swim season officially comes to a close in February, the majority of the team sets sight on the next biggest meet in their swimming careers: the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Junior Olympics. From July 22 to July 27, the Texas High Tigersharks joined and competed alongside the Team Arkansas Razorbacks in Houston, to increase their chances of success. The men’s team secured second place in scores, while the women’s team got fourth. In the combined category, Team Arkansas got second.
The annual Junior Olympics is a national meet that requires a club membership as well as various entry qualifications, either through time standards or placement at qualifying meets.
While many students enjoy sleeping in during their summer break, the swim team is awake at 5:30 a.m., ready to endure rigorous training both in the morning and afternoon so that they will be prepared for that looming week of July.
At the meet itself, most swimmers swam back-to-back events with little opportunity for adequate warm-ups. Due to limitations during the high school season, the club season offers opportunities for swimmers to branch out and swim events they wouldn’t normally be able to.
“I’m proud of my performances in the races I don’t usually swim as often, like the 200 Free and 200 IM,” remarks senior Caleb Lauterbach. “I always appreciate the opportunity to race with the other guys, especially in events I have less experience in. It allows me to gauge where some of my weaknesses are overall.”
Seeing as Lauterbach typically swims more sprint and breaststroke events, competing in others can be challenging. Despite this, Lauterbach landed finals in six out of nine of his total individual events, outswimming his competition and scoring valuable points for Team Arkansas.
To some on the team, this number of events is overwhelming in comparison to the high school season. For reference, the maximum number of individual events in high school is two; at Junior Olympics, a single participant can swim anywhere from two to nine individual events. However, the good outweighs the bad in this situation: swimming this many events is the best way for the coaches to figure out in what events the swimmers will have the best chance of scoring points at regionals. In some cases, swimmers find events that they are better suited for than those that they typically swim.
“During the summer season when we swam exclusively long-course, I realized that I was improving a lot in the more endurance-related events,” reflects senior Maya Olson. “I was talking to my coaches, and they said I should consider switching to distance events since that’s where my skills lie.”
As Olson has religiously swum the 200 IM and 100 Fly for the last three years, changing that routine can be intimidating. However, she now faces the possibility of swimming the 500 Freestyle in competition instead of the 100 Fly.
The AAU Junior Olympics also gives swimmers an idea of what they need to work on before the championship season in February.
“This meet has highlighted changes that need to be made to my swims in order to grow and be the best athlete I can be,” says sophomore Reagan Ramage. “For example, I realized that I breathe too much coming into and out of the wall, I need to improve my underwaters and I need to work on my dives to make them more powerful.”
These insights are imperative to the later successes of the Tigersharks. Seeing how they did at Junior Olympics prepares them for the upcoming months of practice and various meets they will have before testing their abilities at the district, regional and potentially even state level.
Though there is never a stopping point for swimmers, nor a place where their swimming is considered “perfect,” there is no doubt that the Texas High Tigersharks will spare no effort to make these next few months count before they dive into their championship meets.
