In the water at Boehm pool, the swimmers of the Liberty and Mount Si boys swim teams do 100m sets under the direction of Liberty swim coach Kris Daughters.

For the third year in a row, the Mount Si swim team – this year composed of nine swimmers and divers – is practicing alongside the Liberty boys swim team for the season. The Mt. Si swim team does not have a pool to swim in for the boys swim winter season. Three years ago, when Issaquah High School’s boys swim team got too large for Mt. Si to practice with, they began to practice with Liberty instead. Both teams have ended up appreciating this outcome.

“I don’t think very many kids on the team would know who is a Mt. Si swimmer and who’s a Liberty swimmer,” Daughters said.

According to swimmers, both teams love practicing with each other. They view it as a great way to meet new people from other schools and to be part of a community larger than a single school.

“The best part about my practices with Liberty is becoming friends with people I would have never met or even talked to before,” Mt. Si sophomore swimmer Jerry Zhu said.

Once District competitions begin, however, the two teams stop practicing together as each school focuses on their final few competitions of the year. Liberty’s boys swim team this year is looking particularly strong.

“I’m hoping that we can break into the trophy round and be in the top four, if not higher than that. We have a talented group of kids, and we’re a stronger group than we were last year,”  Daughters said.

This year’s team is full of fast underclassmen, including sophomores Warren Briggs, Brian Kim, Alex Nguyen and Amone Rittenberg, as well as freshmen Ian Devogel and Andrew Kim.

“With so many fast underclassmen, I think this year is going to be really exciting,” Liberty swim captain Adam Flash said.