Coach Olivia White is in her first year as swim coach at Kennedy. She grew up in Australia and has been swimming competitively since she was six years old. She continues with that competitive spirit at Kennedy as she takes the girl swimmers to the Nov. 5 meet at the Mashalltown YMCA — an important event for the team’s season.

“A lot of the girls made record times” in recent meets, White said, noting that the team is currently ranked third in the region.

Junior varsity swimmer Sydney Green, fr., describes the team’s practices as “very difficult” and says that the girls put in a lot of time at the pool, “but if you put effort in the practices it pays off during races.”

Currently, the team is tapering, which means that the swimmers wear drag suits and tights as they practice so that when they hit the Marshalltown event they will see differences — improvements — in their race times.

“Hopefully we do as good as past meets,” swimmer Kayla Rettig, so., said.