It was a sweltering Tuesday afternoon as the Arlington and Blair youth swim teams competed during the Tekamah Invitational.
Both squads were up against West Point, Wayne, their hosts and the high temperatures between dips in the pool.
“Stay cool and get personal records,” Blair coach Ayden Dick said of her team's goals for the day. “Get a lot of first-places.”
Arlington's roster sought the same goal. The team of 16 was competing in its third meet after stops at North Bend and West Point to start the season.
“We swam well at the North Bend Relays,” coach John Morrison said. “It's just a fun meet for the kids to get a chance to kind of dabble on the swim team at the start of the year.”
Arlington put in effort during its second meet as well.
“In the events we competed, we competed very hard,” Morrison said. “We are just outnumbered by a lot of these other teams.”
While Arlington contends against opposing swimmers, the coach said it also works toward personal growth in the pool.
“We have some kids that have been swimming for years and we have a few new kids,” Morrison explained. “It's trying to balance that out to make sure nobody kind of falls behind or feels left behind.”
The Arlington kids have focused on starts this season as well as flip turns with some of the less-experienced swimmers.
“It's trying to find, in 50 minutes for four days a week, how much work we can put in and keeping it fun,” Morrison said.
In Blair, Dick said the swim team has grown a lot during June as it's gotten the summer underway.
“It's going amazing. We have grown so much as a team,” she said. “Not only in numbers, but every single individual has improved so much since even the first practice. It's crazy.”
The coach's lineup had swam for low times in Wayne and North Bend prior to Tuesday, finishing second in North Behnd.
“We only got second by two points, which is so amazing,” Dick said. “We had such good teams there.”
The summer schedule continues for Blair on Saturday in Fremont. It then hosts its home meet July 10 before also hosting the conference championships on July 20.
Arlington, meanwhile, next competes next Tuesday at Wahoo before a Dodge meet on July 13. The conference meet in its Washington County neighbor's pool follows from there.
