Finishing their season with a perfect record in dual meets, the Boys Swim team is gearing up for the state championships on Feb. 20.
At the league championships, the Bears won 6 events, placed second in two, and third in another two. They also won two of the three relays, only losing to Curtis in the 200 free relay. Overall, they scored 285 points, placing second behind Curtis and beating all other teams by well over 100 points. “[Curtis is] basically our rival. It’s always been us versus them, because they’re really, really good,” said Satya Chalasani.
Olympia Sophomore AJ Valz led the individual scoring for the meet, scoring 32 points and winning four events, including the 100 Fly, 100 Back, 200 Medley Relay and 400 Free Relay. For his club team, Valz is also close to qualifying for nationals individually.
“We didn’t think we’d go this far this season because a lot of the seniors that we depended on left, so we didn’t know how it would go,” said Chalasani. However, this season saw new team members make huge contributions. “We had a lot of league qualifiers … especially the new swimmers, like a lot of them picked up really quickly,” said Chalasani.
Swimming is a sport that often requires many years of training in order to perfect the form and get into good shape, so success as a new swimmer can be rare. Many of the top swimmers on the team have been swimming since early elementary school. “I’ve been swimming since I was five,” said Valz, the Bear’s highest scorer at leagues. “30% have been swimming for a while with clubs, but 60% of the team are brand new to swim,” said Chalasani.
The success of the new swimmers has been quite welcome, bringing a lot of depth to the Bears’ swim team. “We have a lot of depth too, compared to all the other teams … we had a really deep team for leagues,” said Chalasani.
A team’s depth can often be best seen in their relays, where one single athlete is unable to carry the team. Instead, success in a relay requires a team to have four excellent swimmers, and often more, due to sickness and injuries. At leagues, Olympia demonstrated this depth by winning two of the three relays, featuring eight unique athletes.
At the district meet, the Bears held a top-three position in team scoring, placing third behind Curtis and Kennedy Catholic. Unfortunately, many swimmers were sick, resulting in worse performances than hoped. “The people I was racing were also sick, so it was just whoever was the least sick,” said Valz.
Having now shaken off illness, the team looks ahead to the state championships with high hopes. The preliminary rounds will be on Feb. 20, with the finals the following morning.
STATE UPDATE:
The team of Eric McClanahan, Joshua Barnes, AJ Valz, and Steve Su placed 16th in the 200 Medley Relay. Individually, Su finished 18th in the 200 Individual Medley and 21st in the 100 Free, with Valz taking 21st in the 100 Fly. Ashton Myrick also placed 12th in the One-Meter Dive, for the highest placing of any Bear at this meet. To close the meet, Kaden Henchel, Kasey Gridley, Su and Valz took 14th in the 400 Free Relay to secure a 26th-place team finish.