[caption id="attachment_399" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Mercer Club Swimming competes with school such as UGA, Florida and Georgia Southern."]
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The absence of a swim team on campus has sparked a new team of students to keep the Mercer Swim Club afloat.
Looking to have a more active voice on campus, the Mercer Swim Club is seeking to raise awareness on campus about upcoming meets and activities offered this year.
Prior to joining the swim club, sophomore president of the club Tess Frawley swam competitively during high school. Frawley hoped that joining the swim club would allow her to experience a team-like atmosphere similar to that of her high school career.
As a freshman, David Michaeli tries to be active on campus and has found a place in the swim club. “I love to compete, but it’s not really about competition. It’s about common interest,” he said.
The core members who attend practice have become close, even socializing outside of the swim club.
The swim club gave Michaeli an opportunity to bond with people who have like goals and share a common passion.
Michaeli believes that Frawley tries to create a community atmosphere and get more students involved. As each president serves a one-year term, current president Frawley wants to rebuild and get more student involvement.
In past meets, the club competed against schools like the University of Georgia, the University of Florida and Georgia College and State University as well as two intramural meets at Mercer.
When Megan Beardsley assumed the role of president last year she admitted to making some changes.
“We did a complete revamp of what swim club was at Mercer. Before, it was a place where you could go to learn how to swim—which it still is, but on the same level it’s competitive now. We actually go to meets. Now we have a full relay team of girls, which is impressive in itself, and people come to practice on a regular basis,” Beardsley said.
Individually the team did well in the meets, but lacked in scoring due to its smaller size. There are roughly twenty members in the swim club as opposed to larger teams that have 100 members.
Beardsley noted that the work ethic of the team continues to make them closer. “The work ethic is good. They are willing to push themselves, and get a good workout by swimming two to three miles in practice,” Beardsley said.
The club is unable to have a swim team, seeing that the pool is not regulation size. “A lot of people thought we had a swim team here, and a lot of people have interest in it in a more competitive atmosphere besides a club team,” Beardsley said.
Beardsley gave Frawley advice on what to expect her first year as president. “I told her to regulate practices, and try to get some emphasis out there and publicity through Facebook and things like that,” Beardsley said.
Anyone who has interest can join the swim club.
“I don’t want people to be turned off by the fact that it’s small. You can join the team even if you want to learn how to swim. Come join the swim team,” Frawley said.
