Farmington high school girls swim team is underway and continues their practice at Farmington Civic Center with 11 new girls and 13 returning swimmers.

Jasmine Goff has been the coach of girls swim for two years.

“I would like for us to win a meet or two, but I would really like to keep a great team atmosphere so the program keeps growing. Individually I hope that we can get some personal best times as well,” said Goff.

The Girls Swim Team gets to go on overnight trips and stay in hotels.

“I get nervous because I would hope they would know not to do anything questionable, but then I remember they are teenagers. Overall they are all good girls and I have some great team leaders who will help out with making sure nothing crazy happens.”

Ayla Gruhala is a senior at FHS and is a part of the swim team. She has been competitively swimming since she was 6 and has the fastest breast stroke time on the team.

“For the size of our team, I say we all did incredibly well last year. We had many girls medal during some of our biggest races at SEMO, and many of us were just a few seconds away from a state qualification! It was frustrating how close we got, but incredibly impressive and a good representation of the effort put into the team.” said Gruhala.

“My expectations for this year have been set at a high bar. Not only do we have so many returning swimmers, but we also have a profound amount of beginners with some serious potential. To have so many new swimmers take an interest and show a desire to learn is incredible! And, not to mention, many of the returning swimmers have already beaten their previous time trial times. It's only up from here.” said Gruhala.

Alex Deer is a junior at FHS and started on the swim team after first finding out about it this year. Many kids don’t know about Farmington’s swim team so a few girls shared their response on why they joined.

“If I need to put a name to it, I would say it was my mom. I had, for a long time, been interested in swimming competitively for the school, but they had little information about the swim team my freshman year! It wasn't until my mother accidentally walked into a girl's swim practice a few days into their season that I even noticed they had begun. I swiftly joined and.. here we are today! And, a little better at getting that information distributed. Though, to this day, even, I have people asking ‘we have a swim team?’ nearly every time I mention my interest. Hah!” said Gruhala.

“I really like swimming, my family and I would go free diving at the beaches in Hawaii when we lived there. When I found out this school has a swim team I got really excited and got the needed forms filled out.” said Deer.

FHS Girls swim does not just include Farmington students, they also include St. Paul kids. All the kids that joined swim are glad they did and are having a fun time throughout the season. The team is very welcoming and nice to returning and new swimmers.

“I feel that from the time that I joined swimming to Now I've made a few friends, the people on the swim team are nice and very excited to be there, it makes me excited to be there too,” said Deer.

Like most sports at Farmington, girls swim is a company sponsored team. The team is looking for sponsors for their long road trips and extra gear.

“We are selling sponsor spots for the back of our team shirts this year. These are for businesses/companies/families/etc who would like to support and have their name/logo on the back of the shirt. We are also selling those t-shirts which also helps the team with going to the larger meets and equipment.” said Goff.

Catch the girls first swim meet on Monday, 15 December at 4 p.m. across the high school at the Farmington Civic Center to cheer on the FHS Girls Swim.