Medley relay leads the way

The swim team’s medley relay begins their road to state Saturday at the District 11-5A meet.

The medley relay is an event in which four swimmers swim fifty yard, with each one swimming one of four strokes.

The Redhawks’ record holding relay consists of junior Noah Rose, junior Jiwoo Oh, senior NIkita Naumov, and sophomore Jack Easton.

Placing second at last year’s state meet, and making the nationally ranked NISCA top 100 list, the relay looks to continue their success this season.

“I think our relay is so successful because we don’t have a defined weakness like other teams do which gives us an advantage,” junior Noah Rose said.

The team has been practicing hard early in the mornings for two hours a day, averaging about 4,000 yards per workout, equivalent to the length of 40 football fields.

“On a relay swim I know that there are three other guys counting on me to do my part and do my part well,” Naumov said. “We’ve got four really talented swimmers and we really work hard in practice, we make sure we push each other and boundaries each time to get the best out of each practice.”

Although they’ve had their share of individual achievements, they work together in this relay as a unit in order to win.

“With team chemistry, we become more comfortable with each other which allows to be relaxed and swim faster,” Oh said. “My mentality is to swim as fast as i can and try to get the biggest lead for my team as possible.”

The connections between the members of the relay also plays a role that contributes to their success.

“I think we are just a really close group of guys,” Easton said. “We want to work hard for each other so when we’re racing, we each want to do our part and swim as fast as we can.”

The district meet takes takes place at the Bruce Eubanks Natatorium this Saturday at 11:00 a.m.