Swimming is often noted as a great way to stay in shape, and ACP’s Varsity Swim team couldn’t agree more. With both veteran swimmers and beginners, the team comes together as a family to support each other through thick and thin, both in and out of the pool.

This weekend, on Saturday September 16, the team competed in their first invitational of the season at NAU in Flagstaff, Arizona. Invitationals are the only way a swimmer can qualify for the state meet in early November. The Varsity Swim team attends four invitationals a season, along with the other CUSD schools. As many as 10 or more teams can be at one invite, opposed to a tri-meet or dual-meet, meaning three or two teams. At this weekend’s invite, the Knights faced multiple successes; most of the team members dropped time on their personal events, such as the 200 freestyle, and relays, which involve a group of four people swimming. Dropping time is the way to qualify for state, but due to the dependency on the team members, times for qualifying change every year. However, if a swimmer swims a race in a certain time, which change every year, the swimmer will automatically qualify for state. Other swimmers must swim under a certain time, again it changes every year, and they will have the opportunity to compete at state. All times to qualify for state depend on the race, such as the 200 IM, or 500 free. At the NAU invite, no swimmer form ACP automatically qualified; however, this was one of four invites of the season, so there are three more chances to swim a time that will qualify a swimmer for state.

Overall, the meet was a success for the Varsity Team. Even with setbacks, such as higher altitude and increased stress, the Knights kept their heads up and just kept swimming. Pictured below is Ian Phu swimming the 100 breaststroke, a perfect example of the strong mentality our Varsity swimmers maintain. The next invite is this Saturday, the Higley Invite, a second chance for our swimmers to qualify for the meet of the year. Swim can be a complicated sport, but with support form team members and our school, anything is possible. As Dory so elegantly said, “Just keep swimming!”