Another season, and another state title for the Creighton Prep swimming team, their eleventh straight. The state meet was full of great swims and swimmers that put in quality performances to guide Prep to another title. The success isn’t just thanks to the swimmers, it is also thanks to the amazing coaching staff, including Tom Beck, the head coach, who has been coaching Prep for 26 years. Through the great coaching and the amazing swimmers, Prep swimming has become what it is today.

At state this season, there were some amazing swims, like Caleb Piti’s 200 individual medley, where he tied for first with Noah Barr. Another great swim was Colin Lafave’s time of 49.78 seconds in the 100 butterfly during prelims, and he came back and won the butterfly with a 50.01. Not only did the upperclassmen perform well, many of the freshman did as well. Rush Clark helped place first on the 200 medley relay, with his butterfly, and he also was able to place third in the 100 butterfly with a time of 51.80.

“Just looking up and seeing my time, I was going crazy,” said Lafave.

It wasn’t just the state finalists that did well this season, swimmers like Noah Schalley and Ross Pantano were able to improve a lot this season.Additionally, swimmers like Matt Ginger and Charlie Magee were able to swim at state because of the outstanding progress they made this season.

“I always like to see the kids who weren’t sure if they were going to make the team, but ended up coming out and making it and just kept going. They didn’t sit back and rest, they kept the effort it took to make the team going, and made big strides because of it,” said Beck.

Another one of the big things that helped this season was the leadership from the seniors. Being a senior is a big responsibility, especially on a team, so to have such a strong senior class that could lead this year really brought the team to greater heights, and made the experience that much greater.

“Going into this year, I was pretty skeptic. I didn’t know how it would turn out, but it ended up being my favorite year,” said Will Tjaden.

It wasn’t only the seniors who stood up this season, but also the juniors. Prep swimming’s junior class is the biggest, with 13 swimmers this year. These juniors were able to step up, and assume more of a upperclassmen position, which really help make the team great.

“There is a big change going into junior year as a sophomore, because there is a lot more responsibility and I think those guys really accepted their roles as upperclassmen,” said Tjaden.

One of the most important parts of the team that has made Prep swimming so fast these past seasons is its coaching staff. Beck has done an amazing job not only training kids in the pool, but also improving them mentally and unifying the team. Beck has taken coaching from the perspective of a teacher to help people fix major and tiny details alike in their stroke to let them swim their best possible races.

“Tom does a really good job of making sure we peak [get best swims, and become close teammates] at the end of the year, not just as a team, but as a family and our swims as well,” said Piti.

Not only were the upperclassmen successful at state, but the incoming class was also performed well this year. This year’s freshman class had four swimmers go to state, and three made it to finals. Those swimmer were Clark in the 100 butterfly, 200 I.M. and the 200 medley relay, along with Ethan Schmaderer and Danny Perry in the 500 free.

“It’s rare that we had 4 freshmen swim at state, let alone a top three finisher with Rush Clark, but I’m confident the tradition will continue with the freshman class,” said Tjaden.

This Prep swimming season was another great and successful one. From the leadership, fast swims and great coaches, this year’s success was no accident.

“I think our team leadership was really good, especially our seniors; they definitely stepped up this year, and that is part of the reason we had such a good meet at the end of the year,” said Lafave.