Century swimming put to the test this season
BISMARCK, N.D. (BVM) — In a season where the Bismarck Century girls swimming is looking to collect their sixth straight state championship, the Patriots are facing challenges both in and out of the pool.
“We started out the season saying, ‘We’re together and let’s just enjoy that. Make it through the first week and take it one week at a time,’” Century head coach Kathy Aspaas said.
Less than a month from the state meet and this mentality still holds true as the Patriots are still not sure how they will conduct their Western Dakota Association (WDA) championship meet due to COVID-19 regulations.
“I tell the kids everything is subject to change,” Aspaas said. “We may tell them this is what we’re doing this week and the next thing they tell them things have changed. They’re pretty flexible and have just been able to go with the flow.”
Besides the looming fear of losing their season or having to sit out two weeks, the Patriots have to adjust to other changes as well.
Due to sharing the same facility with other Bismarck schools, Century can no longer practice twice a day. They split their team up and allow the girls to come in before school or after school.
They have also done away with many of the team bonding events that are normal for any high school team. Travel and practice restrictions have made team chemistry take longer to develop with this group.
Luckily the Patriots have strong veteran leadership and a good culture to fall back on. Swimmers like senior Lexi Duchsherer, juniors Erin Palmer, Sarah Dorrheim, Taylor Cook and Olivia Schuchard have all stepped up to help lead this team, pushing the Patriots to ignore the outside distractions and focus solely on the task of getting back to the state to win a sixth championship.
“They’ve done just an exceptional job and they are very mature in understanding all of that,” Aspaas said. “They’ve been great leaders. … It does help to have those kids who understand what it’s all about and accept that responsibility.”
Having those talented veteran swimmers also allows Century to tweak its lineup when going to events to keep the rest of the team ready.
“They are so versatile that we can keep mixing things up,” Aspaas said. “We’ll put them in different events and other people have to step up.”
All in the pursuit of having the most swimmers they possibly can qualify for state, which will give them flexibility when deciding who will compete in what event. It also serves the purpose of keeping the girls focused on being the best they can in each event and competing against each other.
“I think we just keep competing against ourselves,” Aspaas said. “That’s been working well and I’ve been very pleased with their times.”
This is important because this season the Patriots have only been allowed to compete within their conference. The WDC is strong, but at last year’s state meet, three of the top five finishers were from the Eastern Dakota Conference.
“This keeps it on edge as to not knowing. I mean they see times but they haven’t seen what situations are,” Aspaas said. “It’s been a good thing.”
Unable to really know what is going on with their state competition until they go to the first day of the state meet on Nov. 13, the Patriots will just have to continue to focus on themselves.
However, there is no doubt they will be ready to defend their title when the time comes.
