With winter sports starting up, so does the high school swim season. And with every season, there are need-to-knows for newcomers who do not know what to expect out of a competitive swim season.

     When people think about competitive swim, they usually only think about swimming laps with different strokes. But what they usually don’t think about is the physical toll that it takes on your body if you full sprint or make a mistake. If a swimmer were to make a mistake swimming butterfly, it could screw up the shoulder muscles beyond repair.

     Swimmers who strive to perform better put much thought and effort in their sport. They spend their days off, weekends, even winter breaks practicing to perform the best that they can in their sport. Many people believe that it is too much to have swimmers spend their breaks to pursue a sport that they won't ever think of doing after high school, but swimming strains the muscles that are not used to it because it uses them in different ways then they are normally used. That's why they use their breaks, to help them condition their muscles so they don’t get injured during the season.

     New swimmers always make the mistake of taking the warm ups and warm downs too fast and too hard, by doing that your muscles tighten up and cause a strain. When you warm up and warm down, they are supposed to be easy swims so that it can break down the lactic acid in your muscles, so it makes them less sore and makes them grow much faster.

     Now that you know the strenuous work of swimmers, be on the lookout for news about then events of the season in January and March

Pictured: Swimmer swimming freestyle

Photo Credit: Source

     Bay City Central’s varsity swim team went up against Saginaw Heritage this past Friday at their first duel meet of the year. The Wolves put up a good fight and ended the night with some new personal records.

     Senior, Oscar Fischer, an exchange student from Denmark, contributed greatly to the team. He placed second in the 200 and 500 freestyle with times of 2:04.26 and 5:34.84, both respectable times. He also helped bring the 200 and 400 freestyle relays to a second and third place.

     Meanwhile first year and freshman, Andrew Starkweather received the Iron Man Award at the end of the meet for swimming both the 500 freestyle and the 100 backstroke for the first time. For those who don’t know the order of events, there is only one event, the 200 freestyle relay, in between the two events, and when there is only one heat of the relay, there isn’t much time to catch your breath before the swim again.

     In the end, Heritage came out on top, though the Wolves put up a good fight. Their next home meet is against Essexville Garber at Bay City Handy Middle School. It should be a good meet so come out and watch.

Pictured: Bay City Central swimmer in the 200 freestyle relay
Photo Credit: Source

     This past weekend the Bay City Central Swim Team had their first meet of the year at the Battle Creek Cereal Bowl Relays. This meet has become has a type of tradition for the swim team as they head out after practice the night before.

     After they leave their pool at Handy Middle School, the team heads to Golden Corral around the Flint area for dinner before they head to their hotel. Usually, there are some very brave swimmers who will decide to dip as much as they can in the chocolate fountain, rather it be strawberries, gummy bears, or even fried chicken.

     Then, they head to the hotel for the night where they will play chicken in the pool or sit in the hot tub to relax their muscles for the meet the following day. When they head back to their rooms you can expect some strange activities such as rapping the bible or watching try not to laugh compilations until late in the night.

     When they wake up in the morning they eat breakfast and head out to the mall across the street, with hope that Santa Clause will soon arrive. As they walk along the mall, they will play in the arcade or sit in massage chairs until it is time to take the traditional team photo in the santa booth. Usually he is not there but this year they managed to catch him just in time and grab out picture with him before they headed out.

     When the team arrive at the meet, they warm up and prepare to swim our events. Everyone had great starting times for the season. Some had personal bests already set, such as Tommy Schwind. As the teams who were all there are state qualifying teams, they ended up placing 16th out of 21 teams, with Ann Arbor Forest Hills winning the meet.

Pictured: BCC Cereal Bowl Relay Team

Photo Credit: Santa Booth in Battle Creek Mall

     This past week was the final week for the swimmers in the Valley. This past Thursday and Saturday, all of the teams in the Valley got together and held a meet at SVSU to determine the best in the valley in all of the events. There were many teams there including Grand Blanc, John Glenn, Midland Dow, Bay City Western, Saginaw Heritage, and Bay City Central.

     Bay City Central fought hard and got sixth place. First through fifth are as follows, Grand Blanc, Midland Dow, Saginaw Heritage, Bay City Western, and Davidson.

     Earning them the spot of sixth place were the two relay teams of Shaun Walkowiak, Derek Taylor, Chase Derocher, and Oscar Fischer, and fifth place in the 200 Medley Relay. Then in the 400 Freestyle Relay was Fischer, Derocher, Tommy Falardeau, and Walkowiak, which got seventh place.

     In the individual events, after a long and tiring swim of 5 minutes and 17 seconds, Fisher placed fifth in his 500 freestyle. Then in the 100 Backstroke, Walkowiak swam a surprising 59 seconds, placing him seventh overall. He will definitely be one to watch in the future.

     Bay City Central put up a good fight in the Valley this year, with three seniors this year, the rest of the team will be one to watch in the future. Make sure you watch out for Bay City Central and the Sea Wolves.

Pictured: Walkowiak, Taylor, Derocher, and Fischer in the 200 Medley Relay Final Heat.

Photo Credit: Kevin Derocher