Trojans Rise from the Water!

By Dann Butt

Following a disappointing 7 meet-loss streak from last year’s season, Garden City’s Swimming and Diving Team made a splash in their 20222023 season, with a new conference and team Losing ten seniors to graduation and only recruiting four new swimmers, the Trojans, under Coach Anne Sullivan, knew they had to pull themselves up from the depths as a team despite smaller numbers and no home pool. Senior captains Ryan Sullivan and Liam Pryor paved the way in drylands (pre-season cardio and core exercises), while diving headfirst into Adelphi University’s swimming pool, leading the team through 5:30 AM practice every Monday, Thursday, and Friday to practice technique and build skills

Despite high spirits, this season hit a rocky start GC’s word first dual meet of the season with Herricks (12/02) concluded with a Trojan loss of 70-100 Meanwhile, a visit to Farmingdale at their new Aquatic Center (12/06) ended in Dalers' triumph Another blow to team morale came with the cancellation of a Cold Spring Harbor meet, which was never rescheduled. However, GC came back with a trip to Great Neck North (12/16). Down in the first half of the meet by 9 points, the Trojans took the lead in the 100 freestyle, with Ryan Sullivan (57 73) in 1st and John Crouchley (59.28) in 2nd, with James Haedrich (1:02 10) trailing close behind in 4th Up by one point, the Trojans would go on to take 1st in the 100 backstroke (Leo Strauss, 1:07.52) and the 100 breaststroke (John Crouchley, word

1:16 44), steaming ahead with a 5-point lead by the meet’s end. Misfortune would strike again, however, when Garden City ended December with one more dual meet at Plainview (12/22), losing 43-54

Over the Christmas break, the team met every day at the Hofstra Swim Center, perfecting flip turns and (nearly) mastering strokes When January arrived, the Swim team emerged in a much stronger condition than they had entered the season in, and they bore the fruits of their labors at the meets They managed to secure many victories and ended the season with much more success than they started with. The school community is very proud of the swim team’s perseverance and achievements