The Manhattan High girls swimming and diving team’s season has officially started and just held their first home meet at the Natatorium on Saturday. Starting at 10 in the morning, the girls ended the day with a fifth place finish out of 12 teams. Finishing in the top half of all the teams there, the team still strives to improve.

Due to Spring Break and the lessened practice, the girls lost some of their skill set.

“We just need to get in shape some more because we had Spring Break right before the meet,” sophomore Emily Armbrust said.

Last year the team ran into the same problem of falling short after the break.

“It’s kind of like last year, the same thing happened,” sophomore Kathy Burton said. “We had our first meet right before Spring Break and during break everyone was gone. Everyone kind of loses everything we worked on.”

Along with new swimmers comes the nervousness of the first meet.

“There were first meet jitters since it was on our home turf, we have a lot of new people this year,” Burton said.

Although it was a new experience, the swimmers enjoyed it.

“Some of the other teams were intimidating,” Armbrust said. “It was nerve wracking but a lot of fun.”

Improvement is already being seen as many of the swimmers cut their times at the past two meets. The hard work and dedication is shining through with their success of a new personal record.

“I know all of the girls tried their hardest, we all did. A lot of people dropped times over the past two meets,” Burton said.

In regards of the season, it appears that the team will only get better as time goes on. With returning upperclassmen and fast learning newcomers, the team is predicting a positive season.

“We have a lot of really good upperclassmen this year and the team in general is just great,” Burton said. “We definitely have some strong contenders for league,I think with time we could get some people to move on to State.”

The team works together to solidify the team as a whole.

“The team is strong and we’re strong because we’re a team,” Burton said.