Splash! Our ACP swim and dive team dove straight into the 2020-2021 state championship. The state championships were this past weekend, and our Knights performed spectacularly. I had the opportunity to talk to one of our outstanding swimmers and learn more about the team preparations and celebration. Without further ado, Aksh Iyer!

Q: What was the team’s reaction to getting qualified for state?

A: The team was extremely “fired up” and “stoked” as we qualifying for our State Meet. After learning that we qualified, we were super happy and ready to attack every event. Our team was greatly improved this year because it was our inaugural year of diving headed by Coach Charlie Pavlak. We had six divers qualify for state in the first year: Boys: Giovanni Giella, Ethan Fawkes, Aksh Iyer, and Girls: Charity McBay, Pauline Kousoulas, Sarah Otting. When we qualified, it was a huge relief to all of us because it has been a painful journey to being able to qualify for state. We had a State Team dinner the day before our State Swim Meet.

Q: How have you prepared for state this season?

A: I have prepared for states by throwing some risky dives on my dive list and making sure I have all the dives down. All the other divers that qualified for states did the same thing. For swim, the swimmers did a taper where they increased intensity while decreasing yards to get ready for the big state meet.

Q: When was the state competition?

A: The boys DI and DIII Dive State meet took place on November 5th. Girls DI and DIII Dive State meet took place on November 6th both at Brophy Preparatory.  Our Swim State Championships took place on November 7th at Phoenix Country Day School’s Aquatic Center.

Q: Are there any special preparations that the team will undergo for state?

A: Our swim team has endured long yardage, but will start to taper, increasing intensity while decrease yardage to get ready for state. Dive will throw their complete dive list during the final two practices in order to prepare.

Q: How did the team perform at state? What would you do differently next year?

A: The team performed pretty well at dive and swim states. Boys dive: Ethan 11th, Aksh 10th, Gio 9th. Our boys 400 free relay: (Kung, Conklin, Rios, Bach) took 5th place all doing their personal best splits of 53s on that relay. Our boys 200 free relay banked points in 8th place overall at state. Our girls pulled for a quarantined teammate and took 14th and 15th places in their relays. A few standouts include Diego Rios, Ian Kung, who both broke school swim records, and AnaLyn Bowman who swam her heart out and earned points for our girls in the 500 free.

Q: What is your favorite aquatic animal?

A: I don’t know. The Piranha maybe.

I would like to thank Aksh for taking time out of his day to talk about swim and dive’s accomplishments at state. Congratulations to the whole swim and dive team from the ACP Family and good luck on your next season for all our returning swimmers! Don’t forget to continue striving for the impossible and being extraordinary.