In the past, the Liberty girls swim and dive team has won five state championships. As of right now, they have only one time that qualifies to compete at the state level. What happened?

The transition from competing as a 2A school to competing as a 3A school has been a challenge that all Liberty athletics have had to face. 

For the girls swim and dive team, qualifying for state is now harder than ever. According to the head coach Kris Daughters, competing at 3A is a big change for the state-dominating team, but hope is not lost. 

“We’re in a place where we’re not at the bottom of the pile, but we’re not at the top of the pile either,” Daughters said.

 For context, the 3A state-qualifying time in the 200 medley relay event is eight seconds faster than the time for 2A. In swimming, eight seconds is a tremendous amount of time. 

Fortunately for the team, there are still positive outcomes.

“When someone does qualify, it’s a really big deal, and we all have a little moment of pride. It boosts our morale,” senior captain Dominique Visperas said. 

Coach Daughters agreed that competing as a 3A school will ultimately be rewarding for Liberty’s swimmers. 

“There will be greater competition. That can be a very powerful thing. It can make your swimmers swim faster because they want to succeed in a very difficult league,” Daughters said. 

With 22 swimmers going to Kingco championships, including six swimmers who have never qualified for Kingco in the past, coach Daughters expects the team to have more chances to qualify for state during post-season meets.