This year’s swimming and diving team was led by a strong group of freshmen who buoyed the varsity team throughout the season.

State qualifiers this season included freshmen Stephen Johnson, Isaac Springe, Alex Heckman, sophomore Patrick Oblon, juniors Chase Odgers, Hunter Boehle, Matt Ramaley, Jack Ryan, Izaiah Bowie, seniors Guillermo Hernandez and Ellis Springe.

The team placed 11th at state overall.

Johnson qualified in the freestyle and got a first team, all-state selection at the end of the season.

“This year has been really fun,” he said. “We had a lot of good, quality team wins throughout the season.”

He took second at state in the 500 meter freestyle and sixth in the 200 meter freestyle, a strong outing for a freshman in his first varsity meet.

Some would think that the transition to varsity would be hard for a freshman, but newcomers like Johnson had a smooth ride.

“It hasn’t been too difficult but some of the competition I went against has been tough,” he said. “But overall, the transition has been pretty seamless.”

The freshmen weren’t the only swimmers who had success this year. Many returners also had successful seasons.

Ryan, a returning varsity athlete, was content with his performance.

“I’ve had a pretty good year, I medaled at the JV league, which I thought is pretty good,” Ryan said.

Putting time in during the off-season amounted to improvements in this year’s meets.

“I improved a lot of my times,” Ryan said. “ My best new time was in the 500. I got a 2:06.9. I also improved my time in the 100 where I got a 59.69.”

Ryan believes the new freshman amped up the competition within the program, making everyone in the squad better.

“They’re quite good, they qualified for state in their first meet,” he said. “They’ve had quite the impact on the team, they’ve led on all of the relays. They’ve been very impressive.”

Although the diving program has been historically small, the team managed to send a competitor to state this season. Junior Izaiah Bowie qualified for diving in the third meet of the year. This was the first year he qualified.

“I think I’ve done pretty good,” he said. “I thought I qualified in my first match, but I came up just short. But I got it in my third match here at home, so it felt good.”

Bowie qualified for finals at state, taking 11th place overall.

“I was really happy,” he said. “I felt like I did really well but there was also a lot of really good divers there and I wasn’t sure whether I [they] were going to push me down and not let me through because my scores weren’t good enough, but luckily they were.”