Following a victory for their final meet of the regular season, the Bellefonte High girls swim team remains undefeated, with a record of seventeen wins. 

Although the team maintains a perfect winning season record, this did not come without challenges. Throughout the season, there have been many individual and team accomplishments. 

Senior Avah Colm says that her progress has been not just physical, but also mental.

“The biggest challenge I have faced this season is finding confidence in myself. Because of that, I struggle with nervousness before I compete. This season I have done better at staying calm before I race,” she said. 

Senior Brooke Bagwell believes that her biggest accomplishment this season has been her improved times.

“In one meet, I dropped a total of 14 seconds from all the events I swam combined,” she said. 

Brooke believes that the team has risen to the challenges they face in order to succeed throughout the season. 

“Everyone really pushed through in order to achieve their goals,” she said. 

Avah favorably compares her progress this season to that of previous years. 

“One of my biggest accomplishments of the season was achieving times I have not been able to make for several seasons,” she said. 

Coach Tony Edmonson details that each of the girls has had great successes, and this not only reflects positively on the team statistically, but also means a lot to all of the girls. 

“It’s great to see their hard work pay off. Individually, having 90% of the girls qualify for Districts is quite the accomplishment. Every single girl on our team this year won a race at some point in the season. Key girl will earn a varsity letter as well. To sum it up, the total team effort they showed all season is their greatest accomplishment,” he said. 

For their undefeated season, the girls have earned the title of Mountain League Champions. 

“We are very proud of being undefeated in our regular season and earning the title of Mountain League Champions for the last year of the Mountain League,” Avah said. 

Upon the end of their undefeated regular season, the team will attend invitational meets and go on to compete in Districts on March 3-4, with the goal of becoming District 6 Champions for the third consecutive season. Avah discusses her personal goals for this. 

“I expect to be able to continue to drop time heading into the final month of the season. With this, I will hopefully be able to go a personal best at Districts in March,” she said. 

The team has high confidence leading into the larger competitions. 

“For the rest of the season, I’m hoping that everyone does great at Districts and that the girls team become District Champions again,” Brooke said. 

Coach Edmonson discusses the goals which the girls have already met, and the ultimate challenge of the season that they have yet to face.

 “The girls on this team pretty much have the same set of goals for the season: win the Mountain League, which they did, beat Central Cambria, which they did, and win Districts for the third year in a row. That’s our focus right now and we will do what it takes over the next 3 weeks to achieve that goal. If we win Districts, we should get 6 or 7 girls to States and that would mean a lot to this team,” he said.