On Friday, September 8th, the Blanchet Bears had their first swim meet of the season. The Bears competed against the Garfield Bulldogs at Garfield High School. The meet was thrilling, with many personal victories for individual events. Senior Sophie Robatzek dropped four seconds at the start of the season in her 100 backstroke. “I dropped four seconds in my backstroke. I’m looking forward to my time as it drops as the season progresses,” said Robatzek. Seniors Ali Moore and Adenine Shic did amazing in their 500 freestyle event, as well as senior Maddy Stanley, who placed first in the 500 freestyle, easily lapping the competition. 

The Bears had a lot of really good competing relays throughout the meet. The team did not field a diver for the meet, but Garfield’s diver, Sunshine Teplitsky, did amazing with a final score of 135. “I think Garfield beat us just because of how many more girls they have,” Stanley said. While Garfield did have a lot more swimmers than Blanchet, it can’t be denied that Blanchet has some really strong competitors. 

With the first meet of the season comes a lot of people’s first ever swimming event. With that being said, the freshman did amazing in their first ever high school swim meet. Jocelyn Mitchell did amazing with the juniors in the 400 IM relay with a time of 4:54.90, making a big splash into the start of the season. The Bears had swimmers compete in all kinds of different strokes. Junior Sara Vath blew the competition away in her 100 breaststroke. “Congratulations on a great first meet last Friday,” said coach Taylor Jenson.