MCHS Swimming at a Glance

Hope Miller, Staff Writer

MCHS swim season is under way as Cub swimmers began their season on November 22 at an away match against the Seymour Owls. Both boys and girls competed. Since then, the Madison Cub swimmers have faced the Southwestern, Jennings County, Floyd Central, Greensburg and Jeffersonville and others.

Swimming is made of four strokes: freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, and butterfly. Depending on placement in an individual race, your team’s score goes up. The goal at the end of the meet is to have the largest amount of points.

My favorite part of swimming is how it is both a team and an individual sport and how personal accomplishments can add to the success of the team,”  said team captain, Eoin McMahon.

Hope Miller
MCHS swim team captain Eoin McMahan

When a swimmer competes in freestyle, the competitor may swim any stroke. Freestyle is often swam by the alternate stroking of the arms and a flutter kick.  Backstroke consists of an alternating motion of the arms with a flutter kick while on the back. This is similar to the freestyle stroke, but instead the swimmer faces upward towards the ceiling. The breaststroke requires a “scooping” motion of the arms. The kick is a somewhat circular motion similar to the action of a frog’s legs. Some consider the butterfly stroke to be the most beautiful and challenging stroke. It has a quick dolphin kick and arms that have to emerge from the water at the same time. The goal of each stoke is to reach the most distance in the shortest amount of time.

I almost always swim the 200 yard individual medley, which consists of all 4 strokes, but my favorite stroke is breaststroke.” said Junior Brandon Stewart.

“I swim mostly breaststroke and and freestyle,” McMahon said.

In competitions, swimming consists of individual essays and relays where four swimmers are in the same lane, taking turns, and competing together. Also, there are personal and team goals. Individually, one might want to take off two seconds off of their individual event. As a team, the group may want to quicken their relays or win against a rival team.

“My personal goals are to beat my times from last year and complete the iron swim again this year. For team goals I hope the team does better in general this year, and for future team goals I hope we can build our swim team because it’s kind of small right now,” said Stewart.  

Each year, swimmers compete in the iron-man swim. It is a draining 2.4-mile (3.86 km) swim. This means that the swimmers have to swim a 4000 meter race. Swimmers have to swim 80 50 meter laps. It is not required to swim the whole race, and a swimmer can drop out whenever they want, but the reward is definitely worth it.

“My favorite part of swimming is probably the bragging rights, because swimming is hard and not everyone can do it.” says Brandon Stewart who has completed the iron-man swim last year.

Hope Miller
MCHS swimmer Brandon Stewart

“I have the personal goal of getting my name on the record board…my team’s goals include a winning season and keeping a hard-working atmosphere,” McMahon said.

Distance can vary depending on the race. A standard 50 meter race is the shortest race in the high school level. It consists of a lap down and back. The longest competition is the 500 freestyle. It consists of 10 down and backs. A 50-100 meter race is considered a sprint and 200-500 meter race is considered distance. Each swimming match progresses in the same order:

Order of Events

  1. 200 yard Medley Relay (4 swimmers; 50 yards each)
  2. 200 yard Freestyle
  3. 200 yard Individual Medley – 50 of each stroke; butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle
  4. 50 yard Freestyle
  5. Diving
  6. 100 yard Butterfly
  7. 100 yard Freestyle
  8. 500 yard Freestyle
  9. 200 yard Freestyle Relay (4 swimmers; 50 yards each; all freestyle)
  10. 100 yard Backstroke
  11. 100 yard Breaststroke
  12. 400 yard Freestyle Relay (4 swimmers; 100 yards each; all freestyle)

Swimming can be a very demanding sport. A swimmer will use all of the muscles in their body to reach the end of the pool. It takes not only training physically but also mentally. Breathing is also a challenge when swimming. The competitor must be able to hold their breath for a long amount of time during a race. A swimmer’s mentality has to stay positive and encouraging.

McMahon “I am looking forward to the team bonding and the strides toward personal goals this season” The MCHS Cub swimmers compete for the Hoosier Hills Conference at Jennings County Saturday at 1:00 P.M.