After weeks of lugging swim bags to the high school at five in the morning, innumerable hours spent in the chilly waters of the aqua pool and cleaning up lots of bleached hair off the locker room floor, the East boys swim team is competing in the State meet.

Strong work ethic, intrinsic motivation and having fun as a team has brought the boys swim success as they head to States after an undefeated dual meet season.

“As a team, our expectations going into the State meet are to place in the top two in the state,” Patrick Periard ‘21 said. “This season has been outstanding; we had an undefeated dual meet season including beating last year’s State champions: Holland Christian.”

The boys are looking forward to watching their teammates swim this weekend at such an exciting competition.

Senior Dan Coles reflects on his last season on the team. “I think the team is pretty psyched about the season and how well we are doing. I’m excited to swim and watch everyone swim because this team has been really fun,” he said.

Coles placed third at conference in the 100 breaststroke event and Periard won the 500 free event at their conference meet. Periard received all-conference on this basis.

After they won their conference championship for the first time in several years, the boys are feeling hopeful about success at the State meet and even a win.

“As a team I think one thing we are proud of is our work ethic,” Periard said. “We swim day in day out always pushing ourselves and each other, and have a really good time while doing it.”