A Year of Bulldog Swimming

Since Bulldogs Swim to State was published the Bulldog swim team otherwise known as the Tribe has come a long way. At the beginning of the season everybody agreed that the Tribe needed freshman swimmers to win the State Championships and it didn't look like very many freshman were going to show up. But then something extraordinary happened. "About twenty boys showed up," Gulia Longo recollected. "We didn't know what to think of it because we never had 20 boys before, not even when I was swimming here," the '04 graduate said. "We use to have to go out and beg boys to come to the pool. Now we don't even know where to put them all." In addition to the new freshman three juniors Oliver Diamond, Willis Shafer, and Will Voytovich returned for their second to last and senior Will Bowers returned for his last season.

As for the girls, several new freshman appeared among them Cassandra Col who has been a very strong swimmer for the Tribe. Erika Eisenman returned as a junior and Melissa Nichols, Megan Bush, Maria Schwartz, and Kate McMinime returned to swim for their last year.

The season progressed well. The freshman after learning the ropes became a real asset to the team. The sophomores and juniors all got better and the seniors swam as fast as they could. As Captain Oliver Diamond put it, "We think of it as a 'development' year. We'll develop and then we'll go to State and then we'll surprise a lot of people."

The Bulldogs drove down to St. George where they had two meets and everyone dropped time after winning their last regular season meet in Tooele. The Tribe then went to the Region 10 Championships where the Girls Triumphed and the boys took third. The Bulldogs have swam well all season but as coach Matt Finnigan said, "I still don't we've gotten their best shot by any means. When we do, that's the question: Can (we) take the momentum and take it all the way?" The Tribe has two weeks of training left before State. Everyone is going to have to train hard and swim incredibly well if they want their fifth State title in eight years.