This year, the Stormin’ Antlers (Elkhorn South and Elkhorn High’s swim team) are preparing for another season of success, after placing high at State last year.

“The season has gone super well so far,” Junior Paige Hunt said. “We beat Marian for the first time ever, and the relationship the girls have together is super strong.”

While individual performance is key to placing well as a group, Hunt has set group goals to encourage the girls this season.

“My expectations for the team are to be supportive of each other,” Hunt said. “I also hope to place third as a team at state.”

Early morning practices prepare swimmers to be operating at their best abilities for State, as well as creating a healthy team dynamic.

“In practice it’s important that we always work the hardest we can,” Junior Paul Pechous said. “We have to push each other to reach new heights. These practices are where we build our friendships and or team as a whole.  We try to work hard in everything we do.”

Supporting one another is just as important in practice as on the actual day of the meet.  

“We try our best at meets to make sure that everyone has someone cheering for them at the end of their lane,” Hunt said. “We encourage each other during sets and overall have a great dynamic.”

Outside of competing at a high level, the swim team wants to focus on finding new underclassmen to be leaders within the team, especially this season with the loss of many seniors last year.

“Having a younger team, we’ve had a lot of underclassmen step up and fill some big holes that opened up after losing seniors who were a state champion, runner up, and finalist,” Pechous said. “It’s been really cool to see the improvement in our team.”

The team is only a few meets into the year, yet is showing great potential.

“The season is going really well,” Pechous said. “We are putting in a lot of work and it’s really paying off. We’ve had a lot of best times this season and we are still improving.”