The swim team took five boys and Nina Mayers of the diving team to the state tournament on Feb. 23.
The 200 medley relay finished sixth in the state and broke a school record with a time of 1:38.50. While the state meet was exciting, the real highlight of the season was the number of school records broken.
Sophomore and co-captain Colin Elwell, discusses all five records that were broken this season.
“I broke the 200 free, 100 free and 200 medley relay records and then Kevin [Zhang] got the 100 back and medley and Derek [Fan] had the 100 fly and the medley,” he said.
Elwell feels that winning CVC’s was also a highlight of the season.
In addition to the accomplishments, Elwell feels that his teammates are an important part of the sport, and drive him to keep going.
“My teammates definitely keep me motivated, and even if I’m not seeing results, just hoping and knowing that if I put in enough work, I’ll see results by the end of the season,” he said. “You work hard, you’ll see results.”
My teammates definitely keep me motivated, and even if I’m not seeing results, just hoping and knowing that if I put in enough work, I’ll see results by the end of the season. — Sophomore Co-Captain Colin Elwell
“I just like hanging out with everyone during practice and achieving our goals together,” he said.
Coach Brad Burget explains the swim team’s approach to training.
“Our whole team trains year round,” he said. “Everyone is super close with each other, we all train together, and that really helps us as a team because it keeps us responsible for each other.”
While there were many highs for the team, there were also some challenges, as many swimmers got sick right around winter break.
“A lot of people were sick during winter break training, which is possibly the hardest and most important part of swimming, so it was pretty hard to get past that,” Elwell said.
Elwell also emphasized how practice can be difficult.
“Practice is definitely the hardest part of the sport, both physically and mentally,” he said. “Just waking up every morning, knowing it’s early and you have to go to practice and swim is hard.”
Burget emphasized that this season has been unique in several ways.
“This season was the most swimmers we brought to states,” he said. “We won three invitationals and our league championship. The girls team qualified at districts, which they haven’t done for the past couple years.” Burget is proud of how hard his team works but explains that he always wants more for them.
“I want them to dominate,” he said. “We’re going to have a few incoming freshmen who will help, but I just want Beachwood to dominate the swimmers on the block.”
