The Steinbrenner Warriors swim and dive team beat the Alonso Ravens at home, and celebrated their Senior Night at the same time. This honored seniors Cassie Sylva, Caitlin Cimeno, Demmi Perrino, Charlie Diaz, Kyle Stoker, Sam Dolgin, and Olivia Schneider.
The meet officially began around 7p.m. and the athletes raced through the quick races with speedy times, winning those over Alonso. This may have been because of the abundance of Warrior swimmers, there were at least 20 more than Alonso.
“I swam on my times, but the goal of the night wasn’t times but remembering seniors,” said junior Danielle Martino, who swam two great races that night. However, it wasn’t just an important meet because of Senior Night.
“It was our last home meet of the season, as well as Senior Night,” said junior Hailey Preast. About halfway through the meet, the Warriors and Ravens gathered around the pool to wish their seniors goodbye. The tradition is to give a speech in honor of one of the seniors, and at the end the swimmer dives off the board and strikes a pose or flips before hitting the water.
It wasn’t just about the speeches. The juniors were in charge of putting together the Senior Night. There were posters of the seniors, and buckets with photos and candies for each of them. At the end of the meet, the team gathered to eat dinner and cake.
“It was festive, and the seniors were really appreciative of the juniors’ hard work,” said Martino. After the speeches and before the food, the teams battled it out in the longer races and relays, where Steinbrenner came out victorious.
“Senior night was a success. The seniors are respected highly because they are great people. We wanted to make the night special for them, so I think it was a fun night,” said junior Nico Colome.
Sara Gofter // Staff Writer
