The Maine West swimming team is quite a bit better than its record indicates.

The team is in last place in the conference because of two losses: one to Proviso West, 68 to 27, and one to the New Trier West swim team, 79 to 16.

The varsity tankmen have won two meets, however. They defeated Elgin, 51 to 44; and they outswam Waukegan, 53 to 42.

The sophomore team has the same record as the varsity but came a little closer to defeating New Trier West in the most recent meet. New Trier narrowly edged the sophs in the final relay to give them the slim margin for victory.

According to Mr. Pete Anderson, swimming coach, there has been one exceptional performance this year by a member of the team. Skip Parent '71, broke the existing school record of 2:01.3 in the 200-yard free style with a time of 2:00.1. Then as if that weren't enough, Skip shattered his own record with a time of 1:56.5 against Elgin. Skip is the first Maine West swimmer to break the 2:00 mark.

When asked about the team's 2 and 2 record, Coach Anderson replied, "There has been a lot of illness on the team. Over 20 per cent of our swimmers are not able to swim for us. Another reason for the poor standing of the team is lack of student support. If more people would attend some of our meets, the team would be more inspired to win. Also, one of our better swimmers, Ted Loska 69, is not quite in form. As soon as he can swim like he did a year ago, we will be in much better shape."

The lack of student support is very evident. This is a contributing factor to the swim team's poor standing.

There are some good points about the team. Mr. Anderson said, "We are strong in the breast stroke. Our freestylers are also fairly good. Steve Sperling is showing great improvement, as are several other boys. Our divers are holding up extremely well. They have kept us in a number of meets.

"I have been quite pleased with the boys' attitude. They have 'paid the price.'

Coach Anderson is quite optimistic about the team's chances and believes that they will do better in the upcoming competition.

"The freshmen and sophomores have been doing better than expected. They have a very good future ahead of them in the upcoming competition.

"The sophomore team has done especially well. We do need more depth, however. We should place at least second in the frosh conference meet on February 12. We are also expecting at least a second place finish in the sophomore conference meet on January 4 at Highland Park."

Coach Anderson's final statement to his team is "All the blivits must and will pay the price!"