The standard for the Perry swim team each season is not how many wins the squad can secure, but, rather, how much individual improvement each girl achieves.
With only seven members team victories are rare, as other squads simply fill up the lanes and slowly out-point the Jayettes. Most of Perry’s opponents are from much larger schools, or are from conglomerated squads that easily outstrip the Jayettes in available talent from which to choose, all of which makes the 2015 season one of the most successful in PHS history.
An early season win helped launch the season on a positive note, and that optimistic outlook continued throughout the season, veteran head coach Jean Dowd said.
“It gave them an immediate reward for all the hard pre-season work they had put it and showed them that extra effort can pay off,” she explained. “That got us going, and some of the early times we were posting just added to the momentum and kept us excited about what we could achieve.”
Lowering the best times they have previously recorded in an event is always the goal of a competitive swimmer, but, as each campaign progresses, setting new personal-bests becomes increasingly difficult as the wear and tear of a season accumulates and the targets become decreases of tenths-of-a-second.
Yet Perry excelled in resetting their PB’s in 2015, with a total new individual marks set 46 times this year, a total Dowd was quick to note.
“For 46 PB’s to come from just seven girls is quite remarkable,” the coach noted. “It was just one of many pleasant surprises we had this year.”
With only seven members, the team could have easily split into factions, but, instead, merged into a close-knit unit that was almost a sisterhood, Dowd remarked.
“They all seemed to mesh together really well,” she said. “They were always encouraging each other and supporting each other and they fed off that.”
Co-captain Haileigh Kenyon was the lone senior on the squad, and her experience and personality, Dowd said, helped bring the team together.
“She gets along great with people, and a lot of that comes from a big family and her siblings,” the coach stated. “Haileigh is just really good with people and making them feel at ease and set a great example for the younger girls to follow.”
Junior co-captain Haley Vaughn will step into the leadership role next year, with five sophomores — Breanna Ackerman, Vivian Gonzalez, Breanna Penenger and Sadee Whitfield — and freshman Anna Ridnour all expected to return.
The summer swim team should sent at least three, if not more, girls onto the team, with Dowd hopeful that her current squad can recruit new swimmers, which was the case when Ackerman and Whitfield joined the team as rookies this year.
“It is always sad to see your seniors go, and Haileigh (Kenyon) will be missed, but we have a solid group coming back,” Dowd said. “I am hopeful we can have even more success next year.”
