Park swam true Jan. 13 at their True Team meet at Art Downey Aquatic Center. True Team meets offer a special opportunity for every swimmer in the meet to score points and contribute to their team’s overall score.
Senior captain Henry Salita said the whole team stepped it up a notch in the meet on Saturday. He said that even missing a key swimmer, the rest of the team performed in his place.
“We had some pretty good splits, two of our kids on that relay went our fastest splits of the season,” Salita said. “That’s pretty big for us because we had one of our swimmers who was on our varsity relay out right now. We had to see younger kids step up and that really worked out for us.”
Coach Joe Yaeger said every swimmer did what they needed to do, and the entire meet went really smoothly.
“A lot of guys really stepped up in spots that we needed to,” Yaeger said. “All around. Each guy, every swim, I was surprised, they were on fire early and they kept that through the entire meet.”
Junior Henry Berg said he performed extremely well, swimming a season best 500 Freestyle.
“Today for me, the highlight was my 500 free,” Berg said. “I’ve been sore all meet, so I’m glad I was able to keep on pushing and get under five minutes. I haven’t been able to do that yet this season, so I’m pretty happy about that.”
Salita said he is working on his individual goals, in addition to team strategy for getting more swimmers to sections and state.
“As a senior, I have some times I’m looking for, especially since I’m swimming some new events. I have to figure those out,” Salita said. “Then as a team, we’re really trying to figure out how to put together our fastest relays and what works best. GGetting those put together and ready to kill those sections so we can get some kids to state this year, or get all three relays to state this year again would be nice.”
Yaeger said the meet was different from others from a mental standpoint because of the effects of coming back from winter break, and the swimmers not having swum at any meets during the time.
“I think the work ethic and the mental attitude today was a lot different than early on in the season,” Yaeger said. “(In) boys swimming, like other sports, winter break takes a toll on them. We didn’t compete during that time, and this year, it got a little long and mentally tough.”
Berg said even though it might be a bit tough with the small team size, ultimately he wants to finish strong through the end of the season.
“I’d like to just finish out the season strong with fast individual times and winning meets,” Berg said. “It’s going to be a challenge with such a small team, but I think we can do anything.”
Boys swimming is set to face off against New Prague in their next meet at 4:15 p.m. Jan. 18 at the St. Louis Park High School pool.
