Swimming and diving aim toward common goal

Boys+swimming+has+had+a+strong+season+so+far.

Ben Alter

Boys swimming has had a strong season so far.

Jack Hollis, Staff Writer

With nine swimmers already qualified for the state meet already and all three divers expected to be state finalists, the East Grand Rapids boys swim and dive team is on the way to a State Championship.

“Our goal for this season is to win States after getting second place for the past four years,” Ben Sorota ‘20 said.

Winning a State Championship is no easy task. This becomes especially difficult with a lot of great competition.

“Our hardest competition this year is Holland Christian. They won States last year but we beat them in the dual meet this year,” Zach Sprague ‘19 said. “The hardest meet we have left in the regular season is against Forest Hills.”

The team has already shown that they are capable of beating the team they previously placed second to, giving them hope for breaking their four year losing streak.

While there is a goal for a team win, there is also a number of individual goals amongst the swimmers. Some who have already qualified, like Max Genthe ‘20 and Kyle Goins ‘20, have been able to set goals for placements at States.

“I want to make All Conference and place top eight in both the 50 freestyle and the 100 freestyle events at state,” Genthe said.

With similar goals, Goins said “I would like to take top five in both of my events which are the 100 back and 100 fly.”

For those who haven’t qualified for States yet, their goals look a bit different.

“I am very close to getting my cuts for the state meet,” Sprague said. “I would love to make it back the second day and help the team out however I can.”

The dive team also has three very talented members this year.

“Billy Kirchgessner [‘21] and Charlie Bayer [‘22] are both on the team with me and all three of us are expected to be state finalists,” said the third member of the team, Nick Merritt ‘20.

Though there are far fewer members of the diving team, competition is still quite high, even within the team itself.

“My biggest competition is Caden Petrak, the person I took second to last year,” Merritt said. “Behind that is Billy on my own team as he has already almost beaten me.”

As the state meet approaches, both teams are continuing to work hard, and hopefully reach their goals of winning the state championship.