The Central York swim team is preparing to kick off it’s 2019-2020 season. 

Senior Cody Beck is looking forward to his last season swimming for Central York. “My favorite thing about swimming is the camaraderie. Through all of the long practices, meets, bus rides and pasta parties, our team really becomes more like a family. Being such a close-knit group just makes everything about swimming so much more fun,” said Beck.

Beck has been swimming since he was six years-old and has had a love for swimming since a young age. 

“Michael Phelps inspire me to swim. I remember watching him win the 200 butterfly at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. For some reason, at that moment, I decided that I wanted to become a swimmer and that I wanted to swim butterfly,” said Beck. 

As a senior, Beck is a leader on the team. 

“In swimming, people tend to start to slack when they don’t see a purpose to what we’re doing. If I am able to help then see the purpose behind whatever we are doing, it often gets them back to working hard,” said Beck.

Beck competes in all of the competitive strokes. His best time in the 100-meter butterfly is 55.04 seconds.

 “I swim all four competitive strokes butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. My favorite stroke is the butterfly because it is the most difficult, which makes it even more satisfying to swim,” said Beck. 

Beck has big goals this season as they were coming off a successful season last year. 

“My most successful moment in swimming was winning the 4×100 yard freestyle relay against Dallastown last year. That race clinched the meet for us, and we had never beaten Dallastown before, so it was a big moment. That meet also clinched the county title for us, which was another first for our team,” said Beck. 

Beck also wants to share his passion for swimming with the other members on the team.      

“My goal is to make everyone in the team excited about swimming. I hope to do this by just being inclusive and trying to make everyone feel like part of the family,” he said.

Junior Catherine Strayer also has big goals this season. 

“My goal for swimming this year is to make it to districts again. To accomplish this goal, I plan to work hard at practice and try my best at meets,” said Strayer.

Strayer has been swimming for ten years and her favorite stroke is the butterfly, she also competes in the fly and distance free. 

“My favorite part about swimming is being able to spend time with my friends while I am working out,” said Strayer.