Jimmy Van Wickler is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Arcadia High School for AZPreps365.com. 

Warmups started off around 45 minutes before the start of the meet at Chaparral. It showed just a glimpse of what Arcadia’s boys and girls swim team is all about.

Arcadia’s captains were in each of the lanes during the warm-up, getting the rest of the swimmers ready and leading by example.

Coach Ana Kilibarda gets her swimmers ready and prepared for these dual meets with an emphasis on starts and turns. Kilibarda really wants to ingrain in her swimmers' heads the importance of working on starts and turns. The swimmers took what she gave and used it in the cross-conference meet between the Titans, Chaparral and Cortez. 

“We practice Monday through Friday and then we normally have a meet every other week or something. For a dual meet and she works with us for about two hours,” said Elle Stultz, who is a swimmer for Arcadia. “We work on a huge main set and then we work on our turns and our dives so she definitely works with us on every little part to make sure that we are set for the meets."  

The  dividends from the hours spent on these aspects of swimming showed up Thursday as Arcadia swimmers from all across the board did great for the Titans.

It started off with the boys 4x50 medley relay getting an impressive time of 1:51.67, followed by the girls finishing in 2:07.28 in their race. The swimmers iwho did really well included seniors Ryan Mallender and Tristyn Abbott who are both team captains for Arcadia. 

Mallender won the 200-Individual medley as he poisted a time of 2:13.21, while Abbott finished in 1:23.21 in the 100 breaststroke.

Both being seniors and captains really makes this swim season important for them, which in turn has them give back to the younger swimmers on their team. The love and spirit for the school runs deep for these swimmers and they love the respect and responsibility of being team captains. 

“Honestly, it’s really exciting,” Abbott said. “I love being a part of this team and being able to lead and help motivate all the people I get to be around, being able to connect with everybody on a deeper level almost. 

"Just being able to see how they progress and grow throughout the season is just the coolest thing I could ask for.”

The captains have been an influence on this team and enforced the culture for their fellow swimmers to feel comfortable with everybody and motivated to help their team.

The culture comes from not just the coach and the captains, but from everyone. Swimmers were cheering from the start of the meet until the end.

This swim team is being taught discipline from what swimmers should be doing when they start and when they turn, but it is also being taught teamwork even though swimming is an individual sport.

“I feel like it’s not really me per se,” Kilibarda said. “I definitely feel like it's all of them. I just reiterate the importance of one team, one unit, learn everybody's names and make sure that you are all comfortable with each other. I feel like you can definitely tell.

"We all work under one force and my captains really just hone in on that.”