Boys’ swimming defeats Richfield 49-34
Swimmers’ success leads team to victory
Junior Connor Coleman swims the 500-yard freestyle Jan. 9. Park won 49-34 against Richfield.
January 10, 2020
According to coach Amanda Forsberg, she was satisfied by how her team performed in their weaker events, which led to its win against Richfield Jan. 9.
“Kids stepped up in their off events. You couldn’t even tell (they swam) their off events for a lot of them,” Forsberg said.
While many swimmers had their share of success in the 49-34 victory, junior Hayden Zheng notably broke the boys’ team record for the 100-yard freestyle. According to Zheng, however, he had his eyes on more records.
“I wanted more than 100 free(style) but didn’t work out that way. The last 100 free(style)was kind of an angry slug just to get one of those records down,” Zheng said.
Besides Zheng, many other swimmers were quite successful as several swimmers broke their personal records, according to sophomore Asher Dancic.
“We all swam really good times for us. A lot of people got their personal best (this) year, especially a lot of the newer swimmers,” Dancic said.
Senior and captain Zachary Weiser said a variety of drills in practice helped the team prepare for the meet.
“Something that we’ve been doing a lot is trying to practice different strokes in different events,” Weiser said. “Every day of the week is a different type of practice. Some days we’ll be swimming all the strokes, some days will be our specialty stroke, some days will be just freestyle.”
We all swam really good times for us. A lot of people got their personal best (this) year, especially a lot of the newer swimmers. — Asher Dancic
Dancic said he credits Forsberg for training the team to swim in their off events, as the swimmers spend a lot of time in practice doing so.
“(Forsberg) doesn’t just focus on one thing for each person. She always wants us to get better,” Dancic said. “She wants us all to try to get into varsity Sections, and she wants us all to improve our stroke and speed.”
According to Forsberg, despite the large amount of success, there are still some fundamental skills the team has to work on.
“We need to improve on our turns and our breakouts,” Forsberg said.
The boys’ next meet is against Bloomington Kennedy 6 p.m. Jan. 16 at Oak Grove Middle School.
