As the swim season wraps up, three of the biggest meets of the season are steadily approaching: Districts, Regionals and States.

Swim team coach Christine Nevel has a singular mentality. 

“We are the competition,” Nevel said.

This season, Clover Hill competed in the same division as Matoaca, Manchester, Meadowbrook, and L.C. Bird. 

“[These schools] have nothing on us,” Nevel said.

 Nevel refers to the fact that Clover Hill actually dropped a division this past season, due to the less than stellar performances over the past few years. 

Junior swimmer Emmett Radgowski emphasized how this was the year they grew both as a team and as swimmers.  

“Our team has been small the last couple years, but this year we have a lot of new swimmers… making us in the best shape I’ve seen [in my time at Clover Hill],” Radgowski said.  

The size of a team in a sense creates more competition for the swimmers and against other school’s swimmers. 

For the team, this has been no ordinary season. As Nevel mentioned, this was a rebuilding year. In other words, this was a season meant for the pure growth and development of the athletes on the team. 

“[We] used to be in the best division, due to the size of the school, but… we haven’t performed exceptionally [well] as a team,” Radgowski said. 

Radgowski swims the 50 and 100-meter freestyle competitions and is really expecting the results to turn this season.

During this rebuilding year, junior swimmer Carter Ramkey has been trying to improve upon himself as a swimmer. 

“Personally, I [have been] mainly focusing on technique…, which will hopefully make me faster,” Ramkey said. 

For Ramkey, the team has so far performed amazingly, led by two amazing coaches, including Nevel, and six amazing senior team captains. 

Ramkey competes in the 100-meter backstroke and 50-meter freestyle but brought up an interesting point in improving upon oneself.

“We often participate in events out of our comfort zone in order to improve ourselves,” Ramkey said. 

This season has been a different experience for the team, not just on a division aspect, but also on a COVID level; however “[as] a whole our swimmers [have been] showing up and putting in the work,” Nevel said.

This team is hoping to once again rise to the competitive division next year, and with the growth of this team in numbers and experience, Coach Nevel and others are making that possible for the team.