The swim team received plenty of presents over break in the form of a tournament and plenty of wins.

First came the invitation to West Allegheny for a tournament against several double A and triple A teams from across the WPIAL. Beaver Area School District as a whole placed seventh.

Sophomore Elle Ray had a positive experience at the meet.

"[The tournament] was really long but it was still fun. I got all my best times there," Ray commented.

After the team's lovely break came a meet against Central Valley January 7, who coincidentally shares Beaver Area's pool for practice. In many respects, it was a tight meet for both teams, but in the end, both teams came out on top, with the boys winning 84-61, and the girls winning by a razor thin margin of 82-76. This is the first win for the girls' team this season.

Junior and team captain Jazlyn Yanssens was pleased with the team's newfound success.

"It’s nice to see our hard work finally pay off," said Yanssens.

Despite the boys' team relatively large margin of victory, junior Nick Mathias was disappointed he could not push the score higher due to an unfortunate knee injury after a fall from the starting block.

"It’s really unfortunate that I can’t be swimming. I didn’t expect it to happen and I want to help my teammates and swim. As of now, my future is uncertain," Mathias said.

Two days later in their busy schedule, the swim team faced Hopewell January 9. The boys crushed Hopewell 96-43. Conversely, the girls lost to Hopewell 100-66.

Despite the large margin by which the girls lost, they managed to keep their heads up.

"They [Hopewell] were section champions last year and we got over half their score? Considering their position we did pretty amazing," said junior Sydney Monit.

Check the next ECHO installment to read the results of upcoming meets against Quaker Valley, Cornell, South Fayette, and Beaver Falls. That’s a lot of meets!