Pleasant Valley girls swimming and diving has been known to dominate the MAC, but the domination did not continue last Tuesday night.

The Spartans have not lost to the Bulldogs in five years, but the streak ended with the Bulldogs winning 122-64 over the Spartans.

Going into the meet, everyone knew it was going to be close. Bettendorf is ranked second and Pleasant Valley is ranked third in the state. Unfortunately, the Bulldogs proved they were a force to be reckoned with this season.

The Bulldogs dominated, winning every event except for two. Pleasant Valley won with Libby Staver in the 500 free and Claire Park setting a pool record with a score of 297.45 in diving.

Seeing the Spartans lose in this fashion raised some questions on how they are feeling about the state meet in November. Christy Bishop, sophomore, says, “At this point, I am not panicking about districts and state, but I am concerned.” She also adds, “If we can change up our yardage in practice and get our endurance up, we will be in good shape.”

Lily Williams, sophomore and manager of the team, was concerned for the girls going into this meet, saying, “The girls had no idea what they were swimming at the meet until after warm-ups.” Lily also felt as though the coaching staff was unprepared for this meet.

This meet was a wake-up call for the team. They plan to keep working hard and getting their times to where they need to be in order to have great district and state meets. Kate Mickle, junior, says, “We have to focus on working as a team and pushing each other.”
The girls’ next dual meet is their senior night against Muscatine at Pleasant Valley on Oct. 11. Come out and support the girls as they hope to bounce back for a win.