As this year’s swimming season comes to a close within the next few weeks, it’s the perfect time to look back and dissect what has made the team as successful as it has been. One of those impactful athletes and leaders has been Jake Jepsen. Jake comes from a lineage of swimmers with both his mom (who’s a longtime school record holder) and uncle swimming at Westside in their high school days.
At the recent metro meet Jake was a part of multiple relays and individual events and medaled in three. He swam in the 400 m freestyle relay where they would win gold. Another was in the 100 m breaststroke where he won silver with a time of 1:00.32. The third was in the 200 m freestyle where they would win bronze.
When it comes to motivation Jepsen has plenty, “My mom and my neck injury are my biggest motivators for swim. Without my mom I would’ve quit swimming way before high school. She always told me how good she was, and growing up I remember looking at the record she used to hold, and wanting to get my own record.” Jake Said, “MY neck injury was the driving force that solidified it. Right before high school season my Sophomore year I chipped my C3 vertebrae, which under worse circumstances could’ve prevented me from going anywhere near a pool again. My goal that year was to make state, and I wasn’t going to let an injury hold me back.”
The night before all meets Jepsen prioritizes having a large bowl of spaghetti for the carbs while before the races honey is the go to. When concerning spaghetti Jepsen says “It’s been a tradition for as long as I can remember, and it’s worked well so far.”
While Jepsen is talented in multiple strokes his favorite has the most meaning, “Out of all the strokes, my favorite is Breaststroke.” Jepsen stated, “It’s the most technical and finesse stroke you can do, and this year I’m the only swimmer who is going to perform at a high level at state in breaststroke. It also runs in the family, my mom was a breaststroker back when she swam for Westside, and built her own legacy.”
Jepsen has seen how difficult it is for a team to win the invitationals throughout and other meets throughout a season and looking back appreciates the team’s recent success, “My fondest moments with the team are always the post win team dinners. Winning the big meets in the season wasn’t expected of us until last year, when our team was better than years prior. There’s a surreal feeling that comes with winning an invite for the first time when you’re swimming at it for the last time, and I’m glad that out of every year, this is the year we get to share our successes with this team.” Jepsen commented.
When looking back on what Jepsen would miss the most about his career here at westside his answer was messing around with his teammates, “It’s cliché, but the team is like another family,” Jepsen said, “and it’s hard to leave that behind. If I had words of wisdom to share I would just say trust the process. It always seems like there’s going to be something trying to hold you back, or something testing you, but you can’t let it affect you, because there’s always so much more to accomplish than what you think is right in front of you.”
Jepsen stated that he wants to be remembered by his teammates and coaches as someone who worked hard and put in the work, as a model for the younger swimmers and those yet to come to westside, “I want my teammates and coaches to remember me as someone who worked hard to get to where I’m at.” Jepsen stated, ” I like to tell all the freshmen sometimes how bad my times were, and show them where I’m at now whenever they get mad at their times, or think that they aren’t good at swimming. I want to be remembered as someone who despite every setback I faced I continued to stay focused and improve.”
Reflection is a huge part of any athlete at any stage in life and Jake has fond memories to share, “As I reflect on my years here at Westside, my most memorable experience was the 200 free relay my Junior year at State. Going into it we thought we knew that this was the relay that wasn’t going to perform as well as the others. We had a Cinderella run at State, with Prep getting disqualified in prelims, we had the chance to win, and had we won, that relay would’ve been the only one at State to win for Westside. We got second, which sucked, but we knew we outperformed expectations, we had fun all year, and it was a chance for me and the other members of the relay to show not only the team, but the state, that we were just as good as the stacked relays.”
The Westside swim team now grinds towards the end of another successful season, time to look forward and what is next for Jake, “As my career winds down at Westside, I feel like it’s just getting started. We have this brand new pool that is supposed to be the best high school complex in the Midwest to support us, and it only adds to our team goal of winning State. If we win State this year, it will have been 20 years since our last win. That’s a longer drought than everyone on the team has even been alive. On a personal note, I feel as if my career is on the highest note it’s ever been. To put it into perspective to someone who doesn’t understand swimming, up until last year I would probably compare myself to a backup I was put on B relays, I would make B finals and score less points at our big meets, and my times were good, but they weren’t great. Last year I got to show everyone that I’ve always been good, but now I’m finally great. This year I’m building off of that, and just trying to be as fast as I possibly can.”
After years of hard work Jepsen and the boys are in position to capture the first state title in twenty years. The state meet is set for February 27th and 28th at the Bob Devaney Center in Lincoln. As for Jepsen’s career after graduation he will be attending Nebraska Wesleyan next fall to continue his swimming career.
