Boys swim wrapped up their season on Friday, February 21 after attending the State competition at Waukesha South. The team had some strong individual showings at State, including Ethan Kim’s number five ranking in the 50 yard freestyle and third place in the 100 yard butterfly. They placed 18th overall.
Before State, they already had a plethora of accomplishments to celebrate.
Juniors Carter Olsen and Landon Beaster, members of the team, have been swimming for several years.
Beaster was first influenced by his mother, who was a swimmer in high school, and his sister, who also grew up with the sport.
“My mom really wanted me to do it in high school because she did and she loved it, and she wanted me and my sister to be really strong swimmers,” Beaster said. “I just started doing it freshman year.”
Olsen was first influenced by Beaster to join the team, but eventually developed a strong passion for the sport himself, and he’s now in his third year on the swim team.
“Landon and some other friends convinced me to try out swimming,” Olsen said. “I thought I’d get the exercise and it ended up being a great idea.”
They now reflect on their second-to-last season and the progress they have made. This season specifically brought on a new challenge: adjusting to this year’s co-head coaches, Stephanie Appell and Jack Garcia.
“[Appell and Garcia] are pretty new to coaching, but they did a really good job coaching us this season,” Olsen said. “They definitely helped us all become better swimmers.”
According to Beaster, the transition came with some difficulties, but the team continued to persevere through the changes in leadership.
“At the beginning of the season, it was a little rocky,” Beaster said. “I mean our head coach left, but Coach Steph and Jack stepped in and ended up doing really well.”
According to Olsen, fostering a positive dynamic within the team plays a crucial role in the performance of its individual members.
“We have team dinners and the coaches have taken us to breakfast a couple of times when we have weekend practices,” Olsen said. “I would say it’s a pretty fun team dynamic, we are all pretty good friends. We try to make it almost like a family.”
Nearing the end of the season, Beaster anticipates that losing seniors next year could affect the success of the group as a whole, as well as the dynamic in the team.
“Some of our good seniors left, and some will be leaving this year,” Beaster said. “As teammates and friends you build those relationships, and it’s hard to see them go.”
But even with a lot of talented swimmers leaving, Beaster believes the swim team’s future still looks bright. He says that a lot of underclassmen have stepped up to fill the roles left open by graduated seniors.
“The sophomore classes here are definitely by far the best ones, because last year three or four of them were at State, and they got top five,” Beaster said. “So that’s exciting for the future of the program. [The] future of the program looks bright with them.”
With this promising future came a winning streak for the team, highlighting their success even further and making them fiercer competitors.
“We are undefeated in dual meets, which is pretty cool,” Beaster said. “We have a bunch of meets throughout the year, but some of them are like a bunch of schools. The other ones that we have during the week are dual meets, which is just us versus one other school.”