With a total of four state times, the boys swim team placed third at Blue Valley West Invitational on Thursday, Jan. 29.

Senior Callahan Eckardt placed fourth in the 100 Yard Free with a state time, sophomore Garrison Fangman took second place with a state time in the 100 Yard Butterfly, and sophomore Mitch Willoughby placed third in the One Meter Diving.  Together, senior Nick Stack, junior Chase Midyett, Fangman and Eckardt placed second in the 200 Free Relay with a state time.

Regardless of the tough competition, Eckardt managed to stay positive at the meet.

“We have some best times broken, a lot of personal records,” Eckardt said. “[In] our relays, we’ve been clicking pretty well so our starts are second nature.”

In order to set new personal records, the team has recently began resembling competition by undertaking more aggressive practices.

“We tapered off a little bit last practice.” Eckardt said. “[We] worked on starts so we can get off the box fast and we’ve been doing a lot of USTRP sets and high intensity fast stuff to simulate racing which is beneficial.”

Junior Dan Thomas describes the commitment one must put forth to compete well at the swim competitions.

“We’ve been out here busting every single day at the pool,” Thomas said. “It’s not easy to drive twenty minutes every day and twenty minutes back to get home as late as 7 or 8 o’clock and still be a student on top of that with homework and school. We’ve put in a lot this year and I’m really proud of us all.”

When the coach’s commands travel through the air, Eckardt said it is difficult to hear their shouts, but they still motivate him to keep pushing his limits.

“You know they’re cheering for you,” Eckardt said. “Most of the time you’re so focused, you don’t really hear them cheering or yelling at you to go faster, but when you breathe, sometimes you catch your coaches eyes and their just living, yelling and screaming and making all those hand gestures at you trying to get you to go faster.”

Along with the enthusiastic coaches and team members, Thomas believes swimming is one sport unlike any other that is focused on one swimmer at a time which adds up to the teams overall score.

“Swimming’s a lot more individual than team [sports].” Thomas said. “Take for instance football or baseball; you have to work together as a team or nothing is going to get accomplished. The only real team aspect of this is when your team gets placed overall and just working together, but other than that, it’s a really individual based sport.”

Giving up and not putting in 100 percent effort is not an option to Eckardt because he believes in reaching his full potential.

“Why not be the best you can be?” Eckardt said. “Push yourself past your limits and see what you can really do.”

The swimmers who scored for the team had to be in the top 12. Congratulations to the following swimmers who scored points for the team:

200 Medley Relay: Eckardt, Stack, Fangman, Midyett placed third and a state time
200 Medley Relay: junior Jeremiah Kemper, senior Rylan Davis, junior Adam Grey and sophomore Nick Nelson placed sixth
200 Free:  Thomas placed eighth and sophomore Travis Collins placed 12th
200 IM:  Kemper placed eighth with a consideration time
50 Free:  Eckardt placed third with a consideration time, Fangman placed fifth with a consideration time and Grey placed sixth with a consideration time
Diving:  Willoughby placed third
100 Fly:  Fangman placed second with a State time, Grey placed eighth and sophomore Spencer Smith placed 11th
100 Free:  Eckardt took fourth with a State time, junior Brendan Tener placed ninth, and Nelson placed 11th
500 Free:  Thomas placed eighth, Collins placed 10th and freshman Noah Kemper placed 11th
200 Free Relay:  Stack, Fangman, Midyett and Eckardt placed second with a State time
200 Free Relay:  Smith, junior Brenden Shutt, Davis and Nelson placed sixth
100 Back:  Kemper placed eighth with a consideration time
100 Breast:  Stack took fourth with a consideration time, Davis placed eighth and Midyett placed ninth
400 Free Relay:  Thomas, Smith, Tener and Kemper placed fifth