This past Friday and Saturday, the boys swim team competed at the DuPage Valley Conference meet at Naperville Central High School. Throughout the weekend, the freshman team place fifth out of seven teams, JV placed fifth out of eight teams, and varsity placed fourth out of seven teams. Overall, Metea placed fifth out of seven teams with a score of 237 points.

“We train really hard throughout the whole season, and so it starts out a little rough. But as we keep training, we get better and as we get better, it’s just awesome to see how everyone improves throughout the season,” freshman Austin Martinson said.

Many swimmers from each school that participated in the conference were given individual awards for their respective events. Group awards were given to those who participated in relays when they placed in the top six for each separate event. The meet was able to show the improvement each individual swimmer has had over the course of the season this year.

Michael Chan’s 55.09 finish in the 100 backstroke, and a 200 yard freestyle relay comprised of Samuel Kastan, Janssen Gamilla, Ben Forbes and John Tjards with a finish of 1:31.15 were a couple top finishes for Metea and both for the fourth place title in their events.

“The seniors especially were so supportive of the freshman coming to the team and [were] supportive of our training and training us to swim better. The whole team just was encouraging each other to have fast races,” freshman Alex Lafferty said.

As swimmers were participating in their events throughout the meet, many of the swimmers from the team were on the sideline, cheering them on and encouraging them to stay strong during all the events. The conference was able to offer the swimmers a chance to create another amazing experience for the team, encourage them to continue their support for each other, and bring them even closer together as a family.

“[While] working with [the] team, we get to have a lot of fun times and fun memories, but when it gets serious, we tend to really get into the game and swim fast,” junior Griffin Despot said.

“From very fresh [and] brand new kinds of swimmers to more experienced swimmers, everybody has improved and that’s always fun to watch. And to watch the guys come together and work together and get along really well with each other, it’s been a fun team to coach,” coach Mark Jager said.