West Cook News

Last season, the boys co-op Wego-Batavia swim team was at a disadvantage because it was short a few swimmers, but this year, it hopes to see more success with a full swim roster.

“Last year, we did lose to South Elgin by one point," Head Coach Nicole Cleveland said. "It was a loss that my team didn’t want to have last year because we were down by a few swimmers, but we are hoping to walk away with a victory this year."

Senior Sam Thomas hopes to see a win against South Elgin this season.

“I think this time, we have a really good chance of beating them," Thomas said. "Last year, most of our team were freshmen, and most of them had another year to get stronger and beefed up. So even though we lost a lot of seniors, I feel like we can take them down this time,” Thomas said.

The team is not always able to fill all the lanes and receive points after the win, but the swimmers are strong enough to make up for the disadvantage and win most of the meets.

“In practices, we usually do a warmup that consists of a 500 swim, 400 kick and 300 pull with the pull boy, which train both the entire body, just the legs or just the arms,” senior junior varsity Captain Rahul Prabhu said.

The team trains in the weight room and the pool in preparation for meets with the varsity boys swimming team, between 6,000 and 7,000 yards a day.

“I remind them that dual meets are a chance to practice while they meet," Cleveland said. "Our goal is not on individual dual meets, but on conference and sectionals. This meet is a time for us to fix some things and have a little bit of fun, but it’s a chance to practice how to race properly for the big meets."