Thursday, Feb. 22 was the start of this year’s swim and dive state championships. Three boys, freshman Koby Bretz, sophomore Bodie Harrell, and sophomore John Goodwin competed in the diving portion. Bretz placed second, Harrell placed 18th, and Goodwin placed 24th.

“For my first year of state diving I think I did pretty good,” Bretz said. “The highlight of the meet was my double twister. I honestly thought I was going to fail that dive but I didn’t.”

The boy and girl swim teams competed on Friday, Feb. 23 and Saturday Feb. 24. The boy’s team placed second overall with a overall score of 221, with the girl’s team placing sixth with an overall score of 141.5.

“[We were] an extremely dominate team that refused to lose and we came together as a team to do so,” senior Evan Thorell said. “The Omaha World Herald had [Westside] at number four overall to start the season [and] we placed second at the Burke invite, we beat Prep in [our] duel meet by six points, we never lost a duel meet, we won Metros and beat Prep, and we got second at state.”

Overall the boys and girls teams had a strong season. Thorell says that he was happy with how the year turned out even though Westside wasn’t able to place first in the meet.

“Second wasn’t our goal [for state] but looking back on it this was a special season and I love that we got to bring a trophy back home,” Thorell said. 

Story by Lauren Kugler and Will Eikenbary