The boys swim team placed 8th out of 42 teams at the state championship on Nov 10. The team had high relay finishes of 7th in the 200 medley and 6th in the 200 free relay, as well as top eight individual finishes by Seniors Gabe Cusanelli and Jake Tegethoff.
Cusanelli said that he prepared not only in the water but also outside by seeing different specialists in order to perform his best.
“This meet I tapered down my body, which means that I had a lot easier practices. I shaved, I got cupping, and I went to the chiropractor. I did a lot of extra stuff outside the water that I would never do for a normal race because you can only do these things a couple times for it to actually help you. My strategy for my races was to go out fast and not die, which worked out,” Cusanelli said.
Swim and dive coach Luc Benson said that the teams had high hopes leading into state due to their impressive performances over the season.
“I think we were expecting the team to do well [going into state]. Their performance had increasingly improved over the season and so I think there was an expectation that we would do well at state,” Benson said
Tegethoff said he had high expectations to place in top eight since he was seeded high leading into the meet.
“My expectations were that I wanted to place as high as possible. I wanted to make it to the finals so top eight. I was very confident going into state because I was ranked so high and I just didn’t want to fail,” Tegethoff said.
Senior Tyler Wilkinson said that he focused on mentally locking in before his events.
“My strategy was basically to get in the zone. I played a lot of music mostly so I could tune everything out because I just wanted to focus,” Wilkinson said.
He said his strategy for his 500 free was to meet his pace and save his energy for the end.
“For the 500 [my strategy] was to hold out until the very end and then give everything I had because the first 200 I was mainly focusing on tempo and keeping pace with myself,” Wilkinson said.
Benson said the team’s performance at state exceeded expectations overall; especially improving on their record in the 200 freestyle relay.
“Our expectations were met. We finished better than we were expecting. I think that there were a couple of surprises, some things that I thought that might turn out a little bit better for us, but I think overall certainly improving on the school record that the boys broke earlier this season in the 200 free was really fun to see. They were really close to breaking the record in the 200 medley as well so that was fun,” Benson said.