Swim Team Is Ready to Defend Titles

Dimond High School is well into the school year and has kicked off the fall season of sports.

Dimond’s swim team is determined and ready to defend its double state titles in boy’s and girl’s swim and dive.

The boys have won State for the past seven years and last year was the first time the girls had won State in quite a while.

With the seniors graduated and a new batch of freshmen, Dimond is planning to

dominate.

Senior Chris Chung, one of the team’s four captains, said, “I think we have a lot of diversity, and a range of levels in our swimmers. We have such a big team, so I think we are going to do well like we have been for the past seven years.”

Chung has a real connection with his teammates and has come to be quite close with all of them.

“Being on the team for four years has really opened my eyes to all that the previous captains have done and being in this position now, and taking care of my team is very humbling. It’s a great experience,” Chung said.

Junior Erin Moody is going into her third season of Dimond swimming feeling very confident in the team.

She said, “I love everyone on the team. This year I think we are doing pretty well. So far we are undefeated, and in our district we are definitely the fastest. We’ll just have to see what Southeast is like. Juneau normally puts out a strong team and Kodiak for sure.”

“At our first meet, the Big Eight, which is against all the schools in our district, the girls easily won, and I’m hoping that is a really good sign and we can take home another state title,” she added.

Fred Rygh, a sophomore at Dimond, is very proud to be a part of the Dimond swim team.

“The high school season is more fun than the normal club season. We are the state champs for seven years running now, and I love being a part of that. I love being a part of a winning team. I want to help them win.”

“My favorite part of swimming is the comradery, the being with people you love. I’m friends with everybody on the team. Me and a bunch of the guys are really tight,” he said.

Junior Piper Sato also loves being able to compete with her teammates while working on improving herself.

She said,  “I really like how there is a team aspect of it and there is also an individual aspect about it. You get a really good sense of a team, and you get to know people really well, but at the end of the day you are working to achieve your best time and do your personal best.”

The swim team lost some great swimmers last year when seniors such as Jarod O’Brien graduated.

Tackling State may be slightly more difficult this year than it has been in the past, but Dimond’s swim team is ready to dominate.

Sato said, “I don’t know. It will be interesting to see. We have some really good freshmen that came in this year, but we also lost a lot of good seniors last year. I think that the guys will definitely be able to keep their state title, but last year was the first year in a while that the girls had won so I don’t know if we will be able to keep our streak. We will have to work hard, hopefully it will be enough.”

Rygh knows it is going to be a challenge, but he has faith that his team is going to come through.

“It’s going to be a lot closer this year than it was last year. It’s going to be harder, but I think we’re going to win again. Kodiak has Talon Lindquist who’s number one in the state. We don’t have breaststroke, which is the only problem,” he said.

Chung has no doubts about the capabilities of his team.

He said, “We have a very strong sophomore class and a small junior class, but they’re the top in the state. I think we can do it. We have so many people and they all have different races that they’re good at, so we can get good results. Kodiak is probably our biggest threat for taking our throne, but I think we can claim it.”

Dimond’s swim team is prepared to work hard and take State again.

You can expect to see them continuing to bring home the gold.