It’s the moment you’ve (hopefully) been waiting for: swim season has officially begun.

In their first out-of-section meet of the season against the single-A Seton LaSalle December 9, the boys crushed the Rebels 112-28, while the girls lost by a razor thin margin in a fiercely competitive meet 72-70.

Then, at their first in-section meet at Blackhawk December 12, the boys won by a fair margin 104-76, while the girls sank in their extremely challenging meet 144-38.

Boys' team captain and senior Dylan Nunes was very optimistic about the season after their results.

"We’ve got a very young team, so we'll be doing even better in the future," commented Nunes.

As Seton LaSalle was one division lower than the Beaver Area team, there was little worry heading into the meet for the boys' team. This lack of concern turned into confidence for the Bobcat team after realizing the Rebels only fielded four boys compared to Beaver's 19.

Comparably, the girls were more nervous owing to the fact that, for many of them, this was their first interscholastic meet.

"There were a lot of nerves but it turned out alright in the end," said sophomore Taylir Roberts despite the girls’ loss.

Three days later at Blackhawk, both teams were on-edge. For the boys, four of them were missing, two of them being some of the team's best swimmers: juniors Derek Porter and Joseph Hammel.

"I thought we’d be really shaky without Joey and Derek," said sophomore Nate Grundberg.

On the girls' side, they knew going in it would be a tough meet against Blackhawk.

"We knew we were going to lose, but we tried our hardest anyway," said girls' team captain junior Jazlyn Yanssens. "We need to keep practicing and working on team chemistry."

Make sure to check your ECHO January 13 for updates on the swim team's next competitions.