On Feb. 8, the Briar Woods swim team competed at the VHSL regionals, scoring big as the girls team placed 1st and the boys team placed 4th. This success is made even more impressive by the fact that the team is playing under a new coach, Kaitie Preaskorn, who filled in after previous coach, Eric Bateman, stepped down.

Jessica Bayarjargal, sophomore, shares her thoughts,“The new coach is cool and is invested in the swimmers. I wouldn’t be able to identify that many differences just because I only knew Coach Bateman for a year as well.”

Throughout the season, the swim team has been training at the Claude Moore Recreation Center, starting from early times in the morning all throughout the week. Placing high at regionals gave them a boost of confidence and all were excited to have the opportunity to represent Briar Woods at the VHSL state championship on Feb 21. Both the boys and the girls team are competing in groups of 9, with one person for each respective swim category.

Dan Nguyen, sophomore, recaps her overall swim experience saying that, “Everyone is always so supportive and I just love being able to travel and compete with my friends.” 

Bayarjargal shares similar sentiments.“Since we placed so high (girls) in regionals I am very happy about it, however, swimming is just such an individual sport in the sense that you are really competing against yourself and so the places don’t matter that much. Overall I love swimming here at Briar Woods!”

Though the team did not place at states, it’s clear that they have a lot to be proud of.