At the end of a long swim meet, the boys on the Liberty swim and dive team patiently await the announcement of who has won the Spud trophy. As the captains announce the name, a two and half foot tall trophy that has a Mr. Potato Head on the top along with Polly Pockets, fake money and various colors of yarn on it is brought out.
The trophies have been handed out for over seven years, allowing the captains to gain more leadership on the team.
“Right now we’re trying to reestablish our identity as a team,” captain and senior Marek Pierepiekarz said. “It’s a lot of fun being captain of this team, and I hope these traditions carry on.”
The team won against Sammamish with a score of 121-46 on January 14. Although this was its only win this season, the team has high hopes for the post season.
On February 6, sophomores Will Wick, Jacob Hepp and junior Marty Klatt competed in individual events at KingCo finals. Sophomore and first year diver Reid Parsons also competed and placed seventh.
“KingCos was the first real competition I’ve been to other than qualifying,” Parsons said. “I was pretty proud to get in the top fifty percent. The potential for state is there. I just need to keep working.”
“There are a lot of fast swimmers in our area that have graduated so I am fairly optimistic for districts this year,” Coach Kris Daughters said. “A problem that might come up this year is that only the top six swimmers from districts go to state and it was previously seven. But I still think we’re going to do well.”
Wick, Hepp and Pierepiekarz are some of the swimmers that Daughters predicts will be in the top six at districts.
“I was nervous going in to the season because the time standards got faster,” Wick said. “When I got the state times for the 200 IM and the 100 butterfly I was ecstatic since they were really hard to get.”
Districts is February 12-13 at Hazen and State is February 19-20 at the King County Aquatic Center.
“I’m really proud of the improvement we made this year,” Pierepiekarz said. “I’m crossing my fingers that we’ll have a good post season with some great relays and individual races.”