The Millard West swim team competed in the Larry Hill Ram Relays at Ralston High School. This was the fourth competition the team has had this year, except this meet wasn’t put on their record. The meet was made up of specifically relays, and tested the team on their times.

Going into the competition, there were 11 relays the teams had a shot at, and after all the races were complete, the scores were added up. The order of the relays were the 200 Medley Relay, 800 Freestyle Relay, 400 Medley Relay, 200 Freestyle Relay, 200 Butterfly Relay, 400 Freestyle Relay, 200 Backstroke Relay, 850 Freestyle Relay, 200 Backstroke Relay, 400 Medley Relay and the 400 Freestyle Relay (8×50).

“It’s hard to compare this meet to any of the others because it’s filled with flight relays, eight person relays and more,” coach Jamie Bowcott said. “This is supposed to be a fun event and a nice midseason break for the team. As far as competing goes, some people stepped up, and others made some mental mistakes that cost them.”

After all the girls’ relays were finished, they ended up with 48 points for the day. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, this tied them for last place with Lincoln Northeast. Omaha Westside was able to steal first place with 270 points passing Omaha Marian at 244. In third place came Lincoln East with 208 points, and following them was Elkhorn/Elkhorn South with a score of 200. The Millard West girls team wasn’t able to get any top finishers for any of the races, but did come close in several.

“Personally, I think I did okay, I was similar to my previous times,” senior Katie Kuntz said. “We had a lot of false starts and other issues going into it where we weren’t focused enough and that caused us to make the easy mistake, giving us several disqualifications.”

Next up came the boys swim team. They were able to secure seventh place with 142 points, short of Millard South by four. The Junior Jays came in first for the boys with a score of 308. The next closest team was Elkhorn/Elkhorn South, who came in second with a score of 228. This was 80 points behind the Blue Jays and six and two points behind the third and fourth place contenders.

Papillon La-Vista/PLVS finished with a score of 222, and Lincoln East not far behind. Although the boys performed better than the girls, they still lacked any top place finishers in any of the relays.

“We need to just fix mental mistakes and swim with more discipline,” senior Miguel Paredes Reyes said. “Also we need to keep working on technique in practice and break bad habits.”

The Wildcat swim team will be back and ready to compete on Tuesday, Dec. 21. This competition will take place at Millard West high school against Ralston.