On Thursday, Dec. 19, the Loy Norrix Men’s Swim Team took on a very important opponent: one they have not beaten in a dual meet in over twenty years. As the swimmers and divers walked onto the pool deck early that afternoon, the excitement and tension ran high, but the desire for victory was higher.
In swimming, there are many different types of meets in which athletes compete. One of the most common types is a dual meet, which involves two teams facing off against each other. Swimmers and divers score points by placing high in their events: the higher the place, the more points they score.
The LN team has a record of many victories, defeating other schools and taking home several conference champion titles. However, while Norrix has defeated Lakeview in other types of meets in the past two decades, the team has not yet claimed a dual meet win over Lakeview.
“This meet is historic,” said Coach Morgan Kenbeek before the conference.
Coming into such a significant meet, the nerves were unusually low. Overall, the team was confident and excited to obtain this victory, believing that they would undoubtedly come out on top against the opponent.
“It’s really exciting. The moment’s finally here to assert our dominance and show the whole conference what we’re all about,” sophomore Andrew Bol said minutes before competing.
Of course, this meet is huge for the team, and a lot of physical and mental preparation went into this meet. The team practices every day of the week for at least two hours, excluding Sundays. Unfortunately for the team, this meet coming so early in the season was unexpected.
“We were actually supposed to face them a little later on, which could be good and bad in both ways,” assistant coach Tony Dougherty said.
This small bump in the road didn’t change the expectations of swimmers and coaches, and they fought as hard as they could even though it was early in the season and swimmers and divers have only practiced for about three weeks.
“Both teams are entering with the same amount of practice – the same amount of work – so we just prepared for it as best we could and created a lineup we think is strongest, and we’ll see what happens,” Dougherty said.
The overall energy of the team was high, despite win or loss, they were ready to go their hardest at this meet.
“I just want to have a good time,” junior Gavin Lepley said. “If we win, that would be great. If we lose, we lost to a great team.”
Coaches and swimmers alike worked hard to ensure that the outcome of this meet fell in their favor. Specifically, team manager Fletcher Haase has been there to hype the team up and make sure everyone was ready for this consequential fight.
“I make sure I’m emotionally supporting the team. I think that’s really important,” Haase said.
With the help of long hard practices and the support from coaches and team managers, this team wasn’t just ready to swim against Lakeview: they were ready to beat them.
“I think we’ll win — I believe in this more than anybody else,” Dougherty said.
The team indeed won with a 23-point lead, the final score being 104 to 81. Coaches and swimmers left satisfied with the win, happy to see that the hard work paid off.
“We went in and did what we needed to do, and the boys got out and did their jobs like they should’ve,” Kenbeek said.
Some key victories that earned the team this win were the 200 yard medley relay and 200 yard free relay, both placing first. Sophomore Andrew Bol took the win in the 200 yard individual medley, while Sophomore Carson Mortimore won the 50 yard freestyle. In addition, Juniors Isaac Patrick placed first in diving, while Gavin Lepley grabbed a win in both the 100 yard freestyle and the 100 yd breaststroke, scoring the most points on the team for this meet.
“We really went out there, we did a good job, fought hard – fought with honor – and we defeated the Spartans,” Lepley said.
The season isn’t over yet for the team. Coming back from break, swimmers and divers will face off against school rival Kalamazoo Central on Jan. 9 and will also be competing against Lakeview again at the conference championships on Mar. 1. The team will continue working their hardest at practice and fighting for victory at every meet to come, but for now, they celebrate this long-time missed victory against Lakeview with pride.
“We came in confident, respectful and we knew we were gonna win. We swam super well, executed the game plan and it was barbeque chicken from there,” Bol said.