JV 2 just keep swimmin’

Ashley Garrett

Ashley Garrett, Staff Writer
February 29, 2020

For girls joining the JV Swim teams, there is now a change for those who don’t make it onto JV1.
While there used to be a JV2 team,  Coach Eric Craven decided to cut the team last year and make one large JV team. The problem with that was that team would have to practice at night, and many students weren’t able to as they were a part of other activities.
Many of the students were disappointed to hear that their team had been cut.
“I was really sad that I might not have been able to swim the last year of my high school years,”  JV 2 captain senior Sarah Lytle said. “I was a little surprised because I wasn’t really aware about the possibility of the cut.”
Some of the girls also felt upset because they were in danger of losing their team.
“When I found out the team was cut I was really upset and disappointed because it was so abrupt,” junior Nicole Bensonsaid. “The swim community and family we built would be changed.”
Since some students weren’t able to even swim with JV1 and were just learning to swim competitively, it meant that they were going to lose their shot at competing. The two volunteer coaches stepped up, even though they had no swim training before this.
“They push us to do our best and contribute knowledge and skills to help us constantly improve,” Benson said. “Their time and dedication [are] amazing.”
The teams are placed through time trials which is where swimmers compete in different events and the thirty five lowest times are on varsity, the next forty people make JV1, and the rest go into JV2.
“The JV1 team is a little faster and more established than the JV2 team as the JV2 team is just learning the concept of competitive swimming,” Craven said.
Many of students are not able to make it on the varsity or JV1 team and that means that JV2 is their only option.
“A lot of freshmen can’t make varsity or JV1 so I felt bad that they wouldn’t have the opportunity to swim,” Lytle said.
Meets also look different between the two Junior Varsity teams. There are only four swimmers allowed in each event from the entire team, including varsity and both of the junior varsity teams. Since JV2 is already a JV team it will be harder to have them practice with the rest.
“[The JV 2 team] isn’t going to get as many meets as JV1 and varsity” Craven said. “It’s pretty hard to get in 85 girls when you are only allowed to put four swimmers in each event.”
The Varsity team needs to be able to practice as they are the most experienced swimmers and it’s a goal for the JV swimmers to work their way up the teams.
  “JV1 is the next team below them so they are trying to move up to varsity, so they [varsity] are going to get more meets than JV2,” Craven said.
With the assistance of Creek’s prospective swim team parents, the girls were able to continue practicing swim and dive in an organized community setting.
“It is probably one of the only sports that gets this many girls for the amount of lanes that we have,” said Coach Craven. “I think there were a lot of parents  [who volunteered] for swimmers that were on the JV2 team, and they were like no we can’t let this happen.”
Now, the team is closer than ever to being a family.
“We gave a good connection and the captain’s have worked to get us to be a team,” said senior Katya Ostopowicz.