The boys swim team won at their tri-meet on September 1 against Westminster and Washington. They scored 1378 over Westminster’s 75 and Washington’s 61 points.
Swim coach Lucas Benson said that a few swimmers on the team stood out at the meet.
“We improved our 400 free relay time for the state competition and after that meet we improved it further. At the time we had a state consideration time for the 400 yard freestyle. Gabe Cusanelli got one of his better times in the 100 breaststroke and won the 200 free. Tyler Wilkinson won his event, the 100 backstroke. Jake Tegethoff won his 50 freestyle event,” Benson said.
Benson said although the team was tired, he was happy with how they scored, considering that the meet was early in the season.
“It was tough because we had three meets this week. It was hard because we had fewer practices and going from meet to meet is difficult. I think overall we did well, it was a good early season meet, we did get some state consideration times which was good to see. Overall it showed that we’re capable of doing even better. We saw some good times but we know that we can continue to improve on them,” Benson said.
This year’s season has been a good opportunity to improve on relays and effort, Benson said.
“We’re trying to maximize effort. One of things I’m trying to hammer home this year is that we should be trying to perform the same in practice that we do in meets. Right now we’re trying to improve our relays and ideally we’d like to make a state cut in all three of our relays,” Benson said.
Senior Gabe Cusanelli said he swam his best event at the meet despite not usually being able to.
“I swam the 200 freestyle and the 100 Breaststroke. I typically swim the 100 Breaststroke at every swim meet since it’s my best race but I don’t typically swim the 200 freestyle. The 200 freestyle is one of my best races but it usually conflicts with our team’s best relay [200 medley],” Cusanelli said.
Although he usually improves through the year, Cusanelli said his performance at the meet didn’t bring any unexpected changes to his times.
“I didn’t drop time in my races because with the caliber of swimming that I’m at, it’s very rare to achieve a best time due to my previous best times being at championship meets, with a tech suit on, tapered practices before the meet, and being shaved. I achieve my best times every year but only at specific meets normally,” Cusanelli said.
Senior Jake Tegethoff said his events usually vary from year to year.
“At the meet vs Washington and Westminster I swam the 50 fr and 100 fr. I usually swim a variety of races every season because Coach Benson likes to have everybody swimming a variety of races throughout the season,” Tegethoff said.
The season has been a good opportunity to improve on his starting, Tegethoff said.
“I added a little bit of time from my [personal best] in both races, but both my best times were from state. I don’t expect myself to drop in a regular season meet. My strengths were being able to secure points for the team when needed but my weakness is I don’t have the endurance to really finish races at the end of the meet. I’ve gotten a lot better starting off the blocks and underwater,” Tegethoff said.
