Both the boys and girls swim team will be competing in the Greater Miami Conference championship meet on Sat. Feb. 7. The meet will be held at Mason High School.

“GMC’s is a super fun meet where you get to swim some of your best events in order to get your best time after being tapered. I’m excited for this year because I get to swim the 100 butterfly which is my favorite event,” junior Mackenzie McMullen said.

The schools in the GMC for swimming are as followings:

• Colerain
• Fairfield
• Hamilton
• Lakota East
• Lakota West
• Mason
• Oak Hills
• Princeton
• Sycamore

There is a group of swimmers who are tapering for the GMC meet. Tapering is when you gradually decrease yardage and intensity during practice so that your muscles are rested for the meet. Swimmers usually taper once a season, for their most important meet.

“Taper allows a swimmer to swim their fastest at their specific championship meet. Practices get a lot easier and a lot shorter, however, when leading up to taper, the practices are really hard,” junior Maya Sheth said.

The rest of the team is divided into two groups; the group who is tapering for sectionals and the group who is tapering for districts.

“Tapering is like the greatest thing ever. I’m tapering for districts so right now it sucks because I have to watch everyone else taper while I’m still suffering,” junior Priscilla Wu said.

Last year, Mason won the meet on both the boys and the girls side. The girls have not won a GMC championship since the 2007 season. The boys team ended their four year winning streak last year when they fell to Mason.

For more information on the GMC conference and the upcoming meet, click here.