After a strong finish at the metro swim meet the Warrior swim teams will be sending down 37 swimmers to the annual state meet at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. Last year the girls team split the title with rival Omaha Marian, and they hope to bring home gold this year. With the success last year, head coach Andy Rider was very happy with the performance of the girls team.
“Obviously we had to have some things fall our way and, and perform really well down at the state meet which happened on both accounts,” Rider said. “The girls rose up to the challenge last year, performing their best at the end of the season at the state meet.”
Last year the boys team placed with some top level athletes. Nate Germonprez and Kaden Guzman who are both current D1 swimmers helped bring the team to a fourth place finish.
Following last year’s season, both teams have gained lots of depth and have improved their leadership.
“You know, this year we don’t have either one of those individuals, but the depth has really come along,” Rider said. We’ve had some new leadership step up. And I think we’re actually probably a more deep team this year than we were last year.”
For Rider, the depth on the team has been very beneficial as the team has been able to get swimmers into many events and more swimmers have scored.
“We scored four people in five different events in the top heat and the scoring heat,” Rider said. “Everyone that competed in metros and made it back so we were able to kind of showcase our depth and our talent throughout our whole team.”
The boys team has also shown substantial improvement. Placing second at metros, the team has accomplished a lot.
“It’s a huge jump. The boys have really improved in terms of their overall work ethic and focus and leading into these championship meets,” Rider said. “I think getting second at metros was a huge accomplishment for them. But not only that, only losing to Prep by 20 points, that’s a very close finish.”
The swim team has the opportunity to send all four of its unified swimmers to state. The metro meet really showed all the improvements they made throughout the season.
“Sam, Brady, Camille and Addie all got to swim at the Metro meet in a unified race, which was super awesome,” Rider said. “They’ve all made great improvements this season. And they all get to swim at the state meet for the Special Olympics 50. It’s a great opportunity that the state started putting on.”
In preparation for state the teams have been focusing on details. Rider has high hopes for Lincoln.
“It’s kind of our rest period. Just kind of our fine tuning period for the end of the year. I think both teams are going to perform really well at the state meet,” Rider said. “We both have an opportunity to win a state championship and then also take on medals in the individual races. So I’m really looking forward to it. It’s the end of our year. Everything leads up to this and I think the kids are ready for it.”
