Approaching the end of their regular meet season, the Pioneer swim and dive team celebrated their seniors. Senior night is a special event where a team celebrates their seniors before their final season ends. Seniors received posters made by the underclassmen and other gifts from their teammates.

They started the night off strong, with Pioneer seniors placing in the top three for the 200-yard medley relay. Pioneer junior Kate Van Ryn won the 200-yard freestyle with a personal best time of 1:54.64. The Pioneers swept the next two events, the 200-yard individual medley and 50-yard freestyle, with girls in the top six.

Before the diving break, the seniors lined up and walked across the pool deck with their families to receive flowers and gifts from the team as part of their senior ceremony. They each wrote biographies about plans for their future that were read aloud as they walked and took pictures.

Following the ceremony was the diving portion of the meet. Pioneer senior Arianna Pagel came in first place with a personal best score of 258.20 followed by Grace Daly and Cecile Piffarettil.

After the senior ceremony and diving, the swim meet continued and Pioneer won the 100-yard fly, 100-yard freestyle, and 500-yard freestyle.

Before the 200-yard freestyle relay, head coach Stefanie Kerska told her fastest relay swimmers that they needed to break the pool record. Coach Kerska gives her relay teams goal times and this time they were competing with the record. The time to beat was 1:35.33. Seniors Ursula Ott and Reese Heidenreich, along with Kate Van Ryn and Cecilia Walusek were determined.

Each member took off as the clock ticked on. 23 seconds. 47 seconds. One minute. As Walusek touched the wall, the clock stopped. 1:33.54.

They did it.

They beat the record by almost two seconds.

Van Ryn, a junior, was part of the record-breaking relay. She is not only a decorated athlete with two records on the board but also came back from an ACL surgery last fall.

Leading up to the meet, Van Ryn’s emotions were high, but they calmed after she led off the relay and saw her personal best time.

“I wanted to do it for my team, and I didn’t want to let my relay or the rest of my team down,” Van Ryn said. “But once I did my leg, because I was first, it felt really good that I got the time that I wanted, and then I was just cheering on the rest of my teammates really loudly.”

Not only did Van Ryn come back from injury, but so did Kyrie Garwood. She is one of the 15 swim and dive seniors and attends Community High School.

Garwood initially joined the team with her best friend to stay connected despite having virtually no diving experience. At the time, their coach allowed them to give it a try, sparking a new path that would take her through an unexpected progression with the sport.

“When I got to the first day of practice my freshman year, that was my second time ever on a diving board,” Garwood said.

Each year presented a new challenge for her to overcome. Freshman year was during lockdown, which consisted of strict COVID-19 protocols for all sports. Sophomore year was getting back to normal, and she was really working hard on getting the skills down for her new dives. In her junior year, she broke her foot, prematurely ending her season. This year, Garwood noticed a shift in team culture between the swimmers and divers.

“This year is really the most, out of any year, like one team,” Garwood said.

The Pioneers have just under two weeks until their Conference meet at Saline. After that, they will finish off their season competing at states in Holland on Nov. 22 and 23. They hope to bring home another trophy to add to their four (almost five) year win streak and become state champions once more.