The Ames High girls’ swim team is off to a roaring start and is very optimistic about the upcoming season. With added strength from the incoming freshman, the team has high expectations for this year and is striving for a higher finish in the state competition than last year’s eighth place standing. The team has already been very successful in each of their first four meets. They won two of these meets and came in second at the Ames Invite, coming in right behind Johnston. The team came in second at their home meet on Tuesday, Sept. 19, behind Marshalltown. Ames kept it close throughout the entire meet, losing in the final stretch by ten points. Part of the success of the girls’ team is because of the addition of many strong freshmen swimmers. “A lot more people came out this year,” said sophomore Megan Herrington. “We have some really good freshmen this year that are really helping us out.” Freshmen Emily Downard, Kynsie Vosburg, Lauren Bonett and CJ Cummings are all contributing to the success of the varsity team. Sophomore Stephanie Koch is also having an all-star season, already breaking school records early in the year. Last year the team placed eighth at state. They were pleased with this finish. “It was really good. We hadn’t got in the top ten at state in a long time,” said junior Magon Liu. Although they were happy with their season last year, the swimmers have set even higher expectations for this year. “We are shooting for top three, or maybe top five at least,” Liu added. Ellen Heikens, a sophomore at Ames High, agreed. “We will definitely rank higher at state this year than we did last year.” The girls are very confident about this year’s season. “This is going to be the best year ever because everybody is great and we are all working really hard,” said senior Haema Nilikanta. But don’t think that these swimmers are all work and no play. “This year, because we have such a large team, we are very team-oriented,” said senior captain Courtney Larson. “Our coach really makes it fun for us. We have created a lot of new cheers to encourage team unity. Our team does not separate into groups based on ability; Varsity loves JV, JV loves Varsity.” The Ames High girls’ swim team is off to a very exciting start. The team is working hard to achieve the high goals they have set for themselves. The swimmers are confident that they will have an even more successful finish than they did last year and with the additional strength coming from the incoming freshmen there is nothing stopping them from doing just that.