The boys swim team placed seventh out of 15 teams at the Blue Valley Southwest meet on Saturday, Jan. 24.

The meet was successful because many swimmers improved their times, junior Brendan Tener said.

“I thought overall [the meet] was really good because as a team we dropped a lot of times,” Tener said. “Everyone dropped time [and] as a team we did our best.”

Head coach Alissa Ruffin said the goal of the team for the meet was to work on personal goals.

“We started out thinking of this meet with an individual-based focus,” Ruffin said. “We wanted people to go after their individual goals instead of looking at the team, [but] when they focus on their individual goals, they impact the team.”

The amount of schools at the meet influenced the team’s result.

“There’s a lot more schools here and the competition is a lot more tough,” Tener said.

While the difficult compeition makes the races harder for the swimmers, it also encourages them to improve, Ruffin said.

“The Blue Valley Southwest meet typically boosts the momentum of our swim season,” Ruffin said. “It gives the guys a taste of the solid competition that they will be facing at state.”

Tener said the meet reminded the team of what to work on in practice.

“[We still need to work on] breathing [and] technique, perfecting all of our strokes and also getting out there more aggressively,” Tener said.

The focus of the team for the remaining meets of the season is to achieve individual goals.

“[In practices, we] tier the practice towards each individual each person has their own goals moving forward,” Ruffin said. “We just want to see more dropped time and leaving each meet feeling like it was a success.”