West Potomac’s swim and dive team faced a new challenge this season, as their home pool, Mount Vernon Rec Center, went under renovation. For now, the swim and dive team hosts meets and practices at George Washington Rec Center (GWRC).
Fiona Condon, sophomore swimmer,said that she liked George Washington better because there is more light. “It’s so much brighter, and the locker rooms are bigger.”
“It’s also less hot. At Mount Vernon it got so hot,” Anna Althouse, sophomore,added.
At George Washington, West Po splits the pool with Mount Vernon’s swim team. Which at a smaller facility, means less lanes available. At Mount Vernon Rec Center, they didn’t have to share the pool. More lanes were available to them.
Now that the swim team relocated, the commute looks different. Mount Vernon was right down the road from West Potomac, a five minute drive away while GWRC is 20 minutes. The swim team has the option to either take a bus or drive. They are also able to leave school early to make sure they get to practice on time.
“I think we build more community with George Washington because at Mount Vernon we just walked down the hill everyday, but now we all take the bus or drive together, which is really fun,” Althouse said.
The divers for West Po seem to like George Washington better. At GW there are two diving boards, compared to the one at Mount Vernon. The divers also get both boards to themselves, except for the one diver for Mount Vernon highschool.
George Washington is West Po’s new “home field,” they host half of their meets there but there is no room for supporters to look and cheer them on. “There is no room for anyone to really watch us. The deck is just for the swimmers,” Althouse said. “It gets cramped when we have meets because of the timers standing there and stuff.” “They set up chairs right on the edge, so when the swimmers swim up, anyone in the chairs gets splashed,” Condon said.
“It was definitely easier to host at Mount Vernon.”