From Friday, November 1st, to Sunday, the SAS-ISB Swim Invitational Meet was held at SASPD. 19 schools across Asia participated in this meet – one of the largest non-APAC swim meets that lasted for three days. SASPD came in second place with over 800 points while SASPX came in first with over 1200 points.
Regardless of their school or age, everyone held anticipations and goals before this swim meet. Several freshmen for SASPD, however, shared their thoughts on what they were expecting.
Sean Liu ’23 said, “I was excited to see excellent swimmers that I can learn from, specifically by knowing how others swim in order to help myself improve.” The diversity in the swimmers created an opportunity for students to learn from one another. Liu was also anticipating to improve substantially, but, unfortunately, could not meet his expectations.
On the other hand, Daniel Bao ’23 expected that he would perform poorly and be easily defeated by SASPX. Turns out, Bao did not disappoint. But, SASPD still lost to SASPX by a large margin.
Amber Lim ’23 came to the competition with high hopes and a concrete goal. Although she was nervous, Lim was determined to break the school record for 200 fly. She was able to achieve her goal, barely passing the previous record. However, she also believes that she could’ve done better. “I went too fast for the first half of my swim, so I didn’t have enough energy for the second half. If I went slightly slower in the beginning, then I could’ve gotten a better time.”
As they are still transitioning from middle to high school, freshmen had recognized changes in the meet. The competitors were older and more mature, and the people the freshmen raced were comparably faster. “It has gotten more competitive since I now race with faster people because my heats are higher,” said Liu. Bao mentioned how this meet was more stressful than before, as the results contribute to deciding the APAC rosters.
The three freshmen concur that the meet managed to match their expectations and possibly excel beyond that point.