Coming on strong in practice and meets and determined to finish her swim career in style, senior Patricia Ozimek impresses in lopsided dual victory over LaPorte

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Winter break. For high school swimmers it’s the closest they come to a boot camp. Push yourself through it and the benefits will stay with you for the rest of the season.
A Chesterton senior, Patricia Ozimek knows full well the benefits of what she calls “the most demanding part of the season,” but knowing doesn’t make it easy to get through. Her outlook appears to be right where it needs to be.
“You feel like you accomplished something when you get through those few weeks,” Ozimek said. “My practices have been going way better. My attitude has been feeling much better and I just love the team so far. Energy’s good. I’m just feeling great.”
Her performance in races Thursday night at home in a DAC dual vs. LaPorte kept pace with her attitude.
She swam well for two relays and finished second to Peyton Ostertag in the 500-yard freestyle with a personal best time of 5:25.55 and finished second to Brenley Bonez in the 100 breaststroke, which Ozimek calls her favorite race.
Three of her swims came in a short stretch late in the meet, which included the boys’ dual with LaPorte. The 500 free is the 15th event, the 200 free relay the 17th and the 100 breast the 21st.
“Patricia’s absolutely crushing it in practice lately,” head coach Jenni Kellstrom said. “She looks great. That was a great day for her today.”
Ozimek knocked two seconds off her previous best 500 time set two days earlier at Munster, and that time was about six seconds better than her previous best.
“So far it’s going way better than I thought it would and I’m very proud of that,” Ozimek said of her senior season. “And I’m excited for the rest of the season to come.”
Ozimek said considers this the deepest team in her four years.
“We have a well-balanced team,” she said.
That depth was evident in Chesterton taking first and second in all three relays and taking the first three spots in the first seven of eight individual swimming events. Grace Gaviston’s third place finish in the 100 breast was the highest place for Slicers swimmers.
Seniors Peyton Ostertag and Tegan Werner and sophomore Brenley Bonez won multiple events and freshman Brynn Law (53.70 in the 100 free) and sophomore Kennedy Draves (1:01.67 in the 100 backstroke) also swam to first-place finishes.
Ruby Fowler (213.65) and Bella Walters (208.15) claimed the top two spots in the 1-meter diving competition.
Seniors won four individual events, sophomores three, and the junior and freshman classes won one apiece.