Trojan Bolts Boys Swimming
February 21, 2022
The swimmers are in position to leap off the pedestal as the announcer says “On your mark”. The crystal clear water glistening in the light with every ripple from the past race. Everyone is on the edge of their seat as the horn blows signaling the racers to begin. They take off like bullets going back and forth in their lanes as their teams wait to see who touches that wall first.
This year the boys Trojan Bolts swim team has had many victories and has experienced enormous growth as a team as well as individual swimmers. The amount of joy seen in these boys as they do the sport they love is something amazing. Most boys on the team are also involved in IFLY which is a very competitive swimming club outside of school which just shows how much they love the sport and it makes them that much more committed to this sport.
“The thing that got me into swimming primarily was the competitive atmosphere and the team dynamic” says Hans R
Their team is like a family. Their team is unstoppable, the support they have for each other is inspiring and how they push one another to see success and become the best they can be.
Meets for this team went amazing this year. We had our annual MVC Mississippi Valley Conference at the Coralville Recreation Center. We did not end up having one last year due to COVID-19 but we came back better than ever! Our boys took the MVC title with a total of 444.5 points. This meet we stole the new record from our very own rivals Iowa City City High School in the 200 medley race with Jordan Christensen ’22, Boyd Skelley ‘22, Holden Carter ’24 and Kirk Brotherton ’22 with the time of 1:33.89. Another record was set by Holden Carter ‘24 with a 50.59 time in the 100m butterfly. A memorial was also set up in memory of their fellow teammate and friend Dylan Salge who’s life was unfortunately cut short.
This year every single boy on the swim team broke their PR at some point whether in practice or at a meet. Which is very hard to accomplish as you are competing against your biggest competition, yourself. The
se boys are so motivated and so driven to do better and to be better for themselves and their team. But that’s not the only reason they like this sport.
“My favorite part about swimming is really the social aspect of it.” Max Gerke ‘24 explains.
Gerke describes himself as a social butterfly and enjoys away meets more so he can socialize with new people and meet new friends or see old friends from past meets.
In the end the Trojan Bolt boys swimming team is more of a family than anything else. They go out to dinner after their wins and sometimes before. It is exciting to see where the future will take all of these record breaking swimmers!
