Barstow Girls Swim entered the Central High School Swim Conference and placed 12th overall. The small team was up against over 10 different schools from the Missouri Area. Though only the relay team advanced in the competition, the team felt that they did well overall.
“It’s hard having a smaller team,” says Avani Lakkireddy (‘24). “When you have larger teams, there’s a greater chance that someone will be good. But when you have a smaller team you can be closer with everybody, and it’s like one big happy family.”
The team aspires to improve their dives and to hold longer practice sessions, which will build a strong technical foundation. As of now, the team’s strengths lie with their sprinting ability.
“I think it’s definitely changed my life,” continues Lakkireddy. “I realized that even if you’re doing an individual sport, you can still have a team environment, so I think everyone should join swimming if they have a chance. I would love to be captain next year if they allow me to do so, because everybody is lovely.”
Teammate Rachel Jacobs (‘26) agrees. “I thought that it wasn’t too much of a time commitment,” she stated. “Not really difficult but not really easy. Some of the strokes were pretty hard, I didn’t actually know how to do some of them correctly.” Despite this, Jacobs still had fun.
“My favorite part was definitely the team dinners we had,” added Captain Kylie Burke (‘25). “The hardest part was the constant 100 butterflies that nobody could do.”
“I’ve been swimming on Blazers since I was younger,” she said. “I joined Barstow’s this year when they created one.” Blazers is a competitive swim team. Despite the difficulty of the sport, Burke thinks that it is a good choice for everyone.
“Everyone should come out and join next year,” she said. “Even if you’ve never swam before. We had a lot of new swimmers, and they all did great, and we would love for you to join.”
Contact Kylie Burke or Coach Alexa Taylor if you’re interested in joining the team next year.
Barstow Girls Relay Swim Advances at Conference
Girls Swim attends the Belton Pirate Invitational
Girls Swim competed in their second meet at Blue Springs South
Girls Swim Goes Off (the Deep End) at First Meet
