Boys swim ties for seventh place at the Eastern Kansas League meet
In addition to two state-qualifying swims, coach Dan Dervin received EKL coach of the year
February 4, 2018
The boys swim team placed seventh at the Eastern Kansas League meet on Friday, Feb. 2 and Saturday, Feb. 3. The meet took place at Blue Valley Northwest High School and coach Dan Dervin was named EKL 5A coach of the year.
Most notable results include senior Carter Lawson swimming a state-qualifying time for the 100 butterfly and sophomore Colby Beggs qualifying for the 200 freestyle. In addition, the 200 medley relay — consisting of juniors Chris Sprenger and Ethan Forristal, Lawson and Beggs — placed fourth at the meet and broke the school record with a time of 1:01:43. Finally, Sprenger had fourth place finishes in the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke.
Despite doing well for a majority of the season, Sprenger had his doubts going into the meet.
“Coming into this meet I didn’t have super high expectations because of where I am in comparison to where I need to be at state,” Sprenger said. “I think I’m right on track to cut time at state.”
Dervin believes he has seen the boys grow a lot during the season and this meet highlights all of their hard work.
“[The boys] are doing fantastic. We’re one of the smaller teams [in the EKL], but we’ve performed really well. All of our relays dropped time and we’ve had some great individual swims,” Dervin said. “Going into state we want to be swimming our best. There’s going to be a little bit of fine-tuning and then it’s going to be managing our emotions. We’ve got a lot of promise.”
In agreement, Forristal thinks that fine-tuning will help him improve.
“At state I think I can swim much faster by working on my tempo and breastroke. Working on my 50-split will help the team a lot in the relay,” Forristal said. “I can also speed up my stroke during my freestyle because my stroke count is a bit too low right now.”
While the general consensus is that the team goal is to do well at state, Forristal and other members have a personal goal as well.
“We’re really close to breaking the school record in the 200 freestyle relay,” Forristal said. “That’s going to be taken down at state.”
The swim team will be in action again at the Capitol Federal Natatorium in Topeka for the state meet on Friday, Feb. 16 and Saturday, Feb. 17.
