The Beaver Area Swim and Dive team has had another excellent two weeks, packed with meets where they hosted Pine Richland, Central Valley, and Montour.

January 28 Beaver faded against Pine Richland, a team not in Beaver's section. As is typical for AAA teams, their size and skill were greater than Beaver's. As a result, the loss the boys' and girls' team experienced did not affect their chances at section champions.

The boys lost by a small margin at 96-81 and the girls lost 88-62.

The next week the team hosted Central Valley at the pool February 4. Strangely, both teams claimed a home-field advantage due to the fact that both teams practice in the same pool.

At this meet, the pool featured a new sign which said, "Beaver Swim Σlieves." Painted by swimmers before the meet, the sign shows the swim team's support for 12 year-old Elias Kazas, who is currently battling cancer. To show additional support, swimmers wrote Σ2 on their shoulders with 2 being Elias's basketball number.

Despite being near equals with both the boys’ and girls’ team, it was clear halfway through the meet that both teams would easily win.

Both teams won handily with the boys' score of 93-71 and the girls' score of 89-63.

Finally, the team hosted Montour February 8. In the previous days, the team was promised a difficult meet, with there being some uncertainty on whether or not the team would win.

As always, the meet started with diving, and, as it seems is always the case, senior Andrew Cestra once again broke the pool record for 6 meter diving—a record he set only a few meets ago.

Cestra doesn’t believe he will be able to break this record again for one simple fact.

"This was the last meet I could have possibly broken it. This record is going to stand."

The uncertainty about the team's victory chances carried on well into the meet, with the boys' and girls' teams both having a razor-thin lead against Montour.

However, in the end both teams maintained their small leads and won in the closest match of the season with the boys winning 94-85 and with the girls winning 81-78.

"It was the most exciting win of the season," said sophomore swimmer Allysan Nunes.

Additionally, it was also senior night which allowed Beaver's senior swimmers to be honored for their accomplishments in the pool. Along with senior night comes the Buck-a-Duck fundraising raffle with swimmers jumping off the diving board to grab rubber ducks which correspond to prizes those in attendance can win. Proceeds went to benefit the pool's maintenance and upkeep.

Beaver Dam members and several district administrators and board members attended to show their support.

Beaver's next meet is against Riverside February 13, and many expect a meet to be even harder than that of Montour. However, freshman Nate Grundberg likes the team's chances.

"Riverside has a good team, but so do we. As long as we don’t make any mistakes, we’ll do fine."