According to junior Will Mathews, Chaska is one of the best teams the boys’ swim team will face, but it persevered.

“Chaska-Chan is a very strong team and we put up a fight,” Mathews said. “All of the swimmers, especially the underclassmen, put some really incredible times on the board.”

Mathews said Hayden Zheng set two pool records which excited the team, though it’s a common occurence on their team.

“Hayden set two pool records which is not uncommon but incredible everytime it happens.” Mathews said.

Assistant coach Branch Johnson said, he was surprised at the turnout of some of the swimmers especially the newer swimmers.

“We saw a lot of swims that we were not expecting to see from swimmers, a lot of young kids doing well,” Johnson said.

Going into the meet, Johnson said they knew they weren’t going to beat Chaska by points but they kept going and gave themselves a good start to the season.

“Obviously they are one of the best teams in the state so we weren’t able to beat them in points, but as a benchmark for our season it is a very good place to start,” Johnson said.

According to sophomore Hayden Zheng, the team knew how difficult the meet was going to be ahead of time, but did their best to make personal improvements.

“We knew going in it, it was going to be tough,” Zheng said. “We adjusted, a lot of us actually had good individual scores even though it wasn’t what we wanted.”

According to Mathews, the team’s relays have been successful so far and it has been devoting a lot of time to turns in practices which will continue to need work.

“Our relays are very strong,” Mathews said. “We have been focusing on turns lately and that’s something we can continue to improve on.”

According to Zheng, the team was in trouble right from the start, but they kept their heads up and continued to swim through the defeat.

“We persevered really well because right from the beginning they started to slaughter us,” Zheng said.

Mathews said throughout his time on the team, this meet was the closest they’ve ever been to beating Chaska.

“This was the best meet we’ve had (against Chaska),” Mathews said.”I’ve been swimming on this team for a while and we had some major defeats but this is the closest we’ve ever been.”

Zheng said the team has had problems with their energy on the pool deck, but is working to improve it.

“One problem we have with (the) team is with hype,” Zheng said. “I’m trying to get the guys loud which will come over time.”

According to Mathews, the season has been off to a great start and the

y have a lot to improve on but things can only improve.

“I’m super excited (for the rest of the season),” Mathews said. “Times are only going to get better and it was a great start.”

The team as the ability to be a very intimidating team by the end of the season, Johnson said.

“We have a lot work to do, but we have a foundation for a strong season,” Johnson said.