The Michigan City High School Boys and Girls Swimming & Diving teams competed tonight, January 8th, against a strong Lake Central program. While both the boys and girls teams came up short on the scoreboard, the night was still a positive one for our program. Both of our divers had outstanding performances. Michael Hoppe and Isabella Serrano each took first place in their events. Isabella scored a total of 116.40 points across her six dives, while Michael finished with a score of 208.55. In the pool, Jaren Swindell earned a first-place finish in the 100 Butterfly with a time of 1:00.39. Lake Central outnumbered and outperformed us in most events, and that showed in the final team scores. That said, the real win for us tonight was the amount of progress we saw across the roster. A number of our swimmers dropped time and posted personal bests. Audrey Hardacker dropped nearly half a second in her 50 Freestyle. Freshman Zian Moolenaar competed in just his third meet of his swim career and continues to improve each week. He dropped time in both the 50 Freestyle and the 100 Freestyle. Freshman Mason Parry, who joined the season late, continues to add value to the lineup and dropped time in both the 200 Freestyle and the 100 Freestyle. Senior Sam Miltenberger posted a personal best in the 100 Backstroke with a time of 1:12.99. Batoul Achy and Olivia Swistek were also able to drop time in the 100 Backstroke. Overall, tonight was a good step forward for our program. Improvement does not always show up in the final score, but it does show up in effort, consistency, and athletes getting better each time they race.