On Thursday, March 12, the boys swim team kicked off their season with a first meet against Ralston Valley and D’Evelyn. They are coming off of a sensational season, where 11 boys qualified for state, including all three relays and won the 4A league championships.
At this meet, all three relays qualified for state, as well as junior Brody Jessen in the 50 free, junior Reid Fornstrom in the 100 free and junior Flaherty Dennin in the 200 IM and 500 free.
Three divers also competed, sophomore Jalen Faddick, junior Ben Ratico and junior Zach Brier.
On Thursday, CHSAA announced that all spring sports would be paused until April 6th in midst of the coronavirus pandemic. After this announcement, the team felt nervous for what the rest of the season looks like, but did not hesitate to put it all on the table before a break.
“I think we’ve been doing pretty good, I mean all of our best swimmers are starting off better than they were last year, all the newer kids are getting right into it, we have a big team, we have a positive team, we have good coaching, I think it’ll be a great year,” said junior Brody Jessen.
The boys are feeling confident, but hesitant as this pause in the season creates a strange dynamic after this first meet. However, they are motivated to keep working on their own and come back strong on April 6th.
“I think it’ll just test how willing you are to try even if you’re not being watched, like are you going to practice on your own?” said junior Flaherty Dennin.
The break doesn’t mean the end of the season by any means, and the whole team is sure to make that clear.
“I feel encouraged that we swam well, but I also feel a little upset that there’s a possibility we may not have the rest of the season…hopefully the boys will practice in the absence of actual practice and meets and hopefully this all passes and we get to resume competition,” said head coach Andy Farner.
When the season is scheduled to resume on April 6th, we can hope to see the boys come back with a bang and have even more great meets such as this, as if their season was never on pause in the first place.