After a year stranded in foriegn waters, the St. Louis U. High swim team has finally been able to return to its chlorinated paradise of Forest Park Community College. After a tough season that culminated in 5th place at state, the squad is eager to get back into the water and dominate the competition this year. 

Along with the reacquisition of the home pool comes the reinstatement of many SLUH swimming traditions that were absent last year. This week in particular was “Blue and White Week,” in which the Varsity and JV squads are split into two teams (blue team and white team) then compete against each other in a series of swimming activities. The first of those activities was the aptly named Blue and White Meet, a full intrasquad meet that serves the purpose of gathering swimmer’s first official times in their events and familiarizing the team with the pace and intensity of a high school swim meet. 

The two teams were almost perfectly balanced, resulting in the blue team etching the white by just one point. The final score was 93-92. The rest of Blue and White Week entailed friendly competition in more unconventional races.

The first race was dubbed the underwater relay because competitors were not allowed to come to the surface of the water during the race. The second event was titled the kickboard relay, its gimmick being that each swimmer must not only use his legs, but also stack the previous racer’s kickboard on top of his own which eventually culminates in the final swimmers balancing a comically large number of kickboards while trying to propel themselves as fast as possible with only their legs. 

“I am enjoying seeing all the news guys come in and swim, being part of the team and being part of the traditions,” said senior Cooper Scharff. “It’s cool to see everyone (come together) as a team for the first time.”

Blue and White week is just one of many fun events that the swimmers are participating in now that they have returned to local water. Tomorrow the swim team will participate in the two-mile “Swim Across America” event, a fundraiser for cancer research that takes place in Alpine Lake. 

The team’s meet schedule has also returned to normal this year. Their first competition will be against Francis Howell Central at Forest Park Community College on Sept. 3. The playfulness of Blue and White Week paired with the familiarity of this year’s pool and schedule has left the team feeling more formidable than ever before.

“Our goal is another state championship,”  said head coach Lindsey Ehret. “I’m not going to lower the standard because we didn’t win last year. We have a lot of potential, and things will have to fall into place and people will have to step up. (Overall) we’ve had a great couple weeks of training so far.”