The Lewis-Palmer high school’s Swimming and Dive team is off to a good start with their first meet turning into a win against Air Academy. Their first multi team meet gave them a 2nd out of 4 teams against Arapahoe, who got first, Rock Canyon who got 3rd, and Highlands Ranch who got 4th. The Lewis-Palmer team combines with the Palmer Ridge team due to having to small of a team.

Alan Arata is the swimming and diving coach, this is his 5th season as the girls coach. Arata was the Colorado Springs Gazette “Coach of the Year” in 2008, the Denver Post “Coach of the Year” in 2009 for all of Colorado, the 4A “Coach of the Year” in 2010 and the Gazette “Coach of the Year” in 2014  

“The 2013-14 season saw the girls’ team win the Pikes Peak Athletic Conference while 10 girls scored points at the 5A State Championships.” Arata said.

The team does have a captain and does have 2 main coaches, and one assistant coach.  The Swimming and Dive coach is Alan Arata, the swim coach is Jackie Cromer, and the assistant coach is Rick French. The team is junior varsity and varsity including, 7 freshman, 12 sophomores, 10 juniors, and 9 seniors.

Alex Lewis, 12, is a swimmer for the Lewis-Palmer swim team and is a contender for states. Lewis believes that her and the team have high hopes to make a run for a state championship.

“I think we are going to have a really good team, we finished 8th last year, and i’m hoping we do even better this year.” said Lewis.

The team prepares for events by practicing monday through saturday, doing race prep and diveboard. This gets them in the mood for meets and upcoming events.
Even though the season just started, The team got off on a good foot with their first win, and accomplishing 2nd place in the multi team meet. The team continues to practice three hours a day, everyday except on Sundays. For swimming the conditioning goes both in and out of water, for example training for each event has a specific training regimen that prepares them for their event.