The Freedom High School Swim Team competed against Wiregrass on Wednesday, October 5. It was a tense event because the teams were considered almost even since every race was close. The Freedom girls team won, while the boys lost by one of the smallest margins in the season. Fantastic swims include Captain Tiernan Noll’s personal best in the 200 freestyle and the 200 medley relay’s close swim.

“This was actually a really good meet,” said Noll, 12. “I’m happy that I was able to drop time from my conference meet.”

He dropped two seconds off his best time from a 2:18 to a 2:16.

Tensions were running high that night; a lot of the Freedom swimmers were friends with Wiregrass swimmers through club teams.

“I loved this meet! I didn’t win any races but the boys won overall,” said Wiregrass Senior Vincent Iglio.

Iglio practices with the Freedom team at their home pool, but he is on a local club team. He lost the 100 freestyle to Seniors Aidan Boggs and Alex Espinosa, who both stepped it up in their sprint events.

That night was both schools’ Senior Night, and a celebration was held halfway through the meet during the break. Seniors were recognized and congratulated. Wiregrass seniors received flowers and a poster, while the Freedom seniors were given a customized bouquet by their own team. Senior Christa Chiovarelli credits the celebration as the reason she swam so well.

“Seeing my peeps from school, I knew I had to win,” said Chiovarelli.

She was a part of the senior relays at the end of the meet which is “fun” swims for the seniors of each school to put in mixed relays. Two males and two females swam for each Freedom relay, and the Patriots were able to win a few of those.

“What a great way to end our senior year,” said Senior Jarrod Rodriguez.

Rodriguez got third place in the 200 IM and was happy to have swum his hardest. The Patriots look forward to their swimmers that advanced to County Championships and to the District tournament, where swimmers will be able to advance to Regionals and maybe even the State competition.