The Clayton High School girls’ swimming and diving team kicked off their first leg of the season with a 4-1 record. Swimming against Webster, Affton, U-City, Berkley, and Parkway Central, the girls made an excellent showing.

Captains Danielle Sikora and Abbie Khometscher led the team with a fun and inspiring energy. Though there are many new girls on the team (both to CHS swimming and the sport in general), everyone has bonded really well and put in a lot of effort in competitions.

Coach Katelyn Long says of the team, “We rock. I’m most excited about the number of people on our team this year. Every year we’ve been growing bigger and bigger and bigger and this is the biggest team we’ve ever had.”

In addition to the returning swimmers  including sprint freestylers Sammy Bale (SO) and Helen Troupis (SR), distance swimmer Dani Skor (SO), butterflyers Lizzie Wolfgram (SO), Izzy Greenblatt (SR), and Christina Krucylak (SR), and rising star in the breaststroke (following her sister’s lead) Katie Khometscher (SO), the team has gained some great freshman. Girls showing promise in the first few weeks include Grace Monshausen (FR) and Nicole Ramirez (FR) in freestyle, and Gigi Mense (FR) in butterfly and the individual medley.

On sending some swimmers to state this year, Coach Long says “We’ll see what happens. We’re going to focus on dropping time and swimming as fast as we can and if we go to state, we go to state.”

The dive team so far has also been doing well. Both current competing divers are returning from last year: Grace Hartmann (SO) and Rebecca Stiffelman (SR). In addition to these girls, Rama Bhat (SO) has been trying out diving and is working on learning her six dives that will allow her to compete in the upcoming year.

The next meets are in January after break. Listen on the morning announcements for specific dates and come out and support the girls’ swimming and diving team this year!