Loss to Benilde serves as wake up call
Boys’ swimming defeated twice in a row
February 4, 2023
Boys’ swimming experienced their first-ever loss to Benilde-St. Margaret’s Feb. 2 with a final score of 95-77. In the penultimate meet of the regular season, Park failed to attain victory a second time in a row after their loss to Orono last week.
According to sophomore Isaac Joseph, he was immensely disappointed with both his own performance and the team’s performance at the meet.
“I swam badly,” Joseph said. “It’s a different environment, we didn’t give 100%. We lost twice in a row — for the first time in a while.”
Coach Nate Stone said some of the swimmers did individually well in their races despite the difficult loss.
“Overall, the swims were off, but there were definitely some diamonds in the rough, some much better swims than others,” Stone said. “Charlie Rostal did a really good 500 — he got after it. He unfortunately didn’t win the races you need to for points, but it was a really solid time for him.”
Sophomore Magnus Smith said the team’s previous loss at Orono severely impacted their overall mentality going into the Benilde meet.
“Really, it was the team morale,” Smith said. “Last meet, it was our first loss of the season, so we dipped a bit, and most of the new people on the team couldn’t really pick it up again after they lost once. For this meet, it just carried over.”
Stone said the team has a lot of work to do, but he still holds out hope that they can bring it back together by sections.
“The training is really hard right now, so they’ll be tired, but I’m just hoping they can get up and race in a tired state right before sections,” Stone said.
According to Smith, the team’s biggest goal for the next meet is to rebuild morale going into sections.
“We’re going to try some mental things,” Smith said. “I talked with the team captains, we’re going to try and hold this team together as long as possible.”
Boys’ swimming’s final regular season meet is against Waconia at 6 p.m. Feb. 9 at Park.
