Simpson’s swim team will end its season with the Liberal Arts Invitational Feb. 12-14. Their times have improved every meet under first-year Head Coach Aaron Strain.

“We have been taking pretty good steps in improving as a team as the year has gone on,” Strain said. “I am enjoying the challenge of trying to push these girls since I am a first-year coach.”

With three seniors and no juniors, the swim team has to overcome the youth factor that comes with every sport.

“We are pretty young and we hope to improve their times every meet to help with confidence,” Strain said.

One of the younger team members is sophomore Mackenzie Hinrichs, and she is enjoying the season so far.

“We are almost done with the season, and it has been going pretty well,” Hinrichs said. “We still have a lot of work to do before our last meet.”

The work they have to do is being improved upon in their practices.

“We have two-a-days three times a week with lifting on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” Hinrichs said. “Luckily, all the swimmers are flexible with their schedule and these practices really help us out.”

With so much youth, the swim team is led by a pair of seniors. Seniors Kendra Frush and Chelsy Croson are two of the three seniors on the team.

“We have been doing really well as of late,” Croson said. “People are having their personal best times.”

The team hopes to keep this up for the Liberal Arts Invitational.

“With how we have been doing lately, we expect to do well,” Frush said. “We hope to be at our peak performance.”

One thing that may have helped them reach their peak performance was their trip to the Treasure Island Training Complex in Tampa, Fla. Seventeen swimmers were able to make the trip.

“We went to Florida over winter break and trained in St. Petersburg,” Frush said. “We worked hard, had fun and got to lie on the beach. We hope this trip will help us improve on our season best times.”

The team hopes to see their best times on Feb. 12 for the last meet.

One thing that is different about Simpson’s swim team is that they have one male, senior Wade Davey.

“He can’t score points for us,” Croson said. “It is too bad because he is really good and has had some of his best times as of late.”

The lone male makes up the men’s swim club.

“He practices and goes to meets with us,” Hinrichs said. “He competes individually against the other guy’s teams and is really good. He is by far one of our hardest workers.”

One thing that Simpson is trying to do is get a men’s team for next year.

“We still have the guy’s club, but we hope that we can go out and find some guys who want to swim,” Strain said. “I have been going out and trying to recruit some guys. I want a varsity men’s team next year that can compete in meets.”