The Revere boys’ and girls’ swim teams are hoping to have a successful season despite facing a number of challenges, from small roster size to non-ideal practice facilities.

Both teams have suffered from a lack of swimmers, as well as having to practice at the Akron General Wellness Center, which swimmers have described as less than ideal.

Senior Sahan Kiridena explained why having fewer numbers is a problem for a swim team.

“[The team] is doing poorly because [the team] doesn’t have numbers … swimming is big on numbers,” Kiridena said.

Senior Alexandria Shockey further explained the sport’s favoring of big teams.

“Every place [in an event] scores except for last, so the team that fills the most spots [usually] wins,” Shockey said.

The boys’ team has a roster of fourteen swimmers; the girls have ten.

Kiridena voiced his position on practicing at the Akron General Wellness Center.

“The pool is very bad. I wish we had our own pool. We would have more time to practice … [having our own pool] would be easier overall,” Kiridena said.

Senior Ben Mullaly also expressed his feelings of practicing at the Wellness Center.

“The pool is really hot … so when you’re kicking butt in practice it makes it kind of hard. We don’t have the same rights that members [of the Wellness Center] do, so we aren’t allowed to use lockers. We actually had an incident where one girl’s bag was taken,” Mullally said.

He went on to explain that the incident was a “mix-up,” and that the bag was later returned.

Despite these setbacks, Kiridena, Mullaly and Shockey are all doing well according to themselves. Kiridena, who swims the 50 meter Freestyle, 100 meter Breaststroke, 200 meter Medley, and 200 meter Freestyle Relay explained his success.

“I’ve been having my best season so far with personal records,” Kiridena said.

He hopes to make the District meet in 50 meter Freestyle and 100 meter Breaststroke for the first time this season.

The swim team is preparing for the Sectional Meets ~ boys swim on Feb. 13th, and the girls swim on Feb. 14th ~ both swim in the evening at the University of Akron. Swimmers must qualify for Districts from the Sectional Meets. Districts are Friday, Feb. 20th at Cleveland State University.