After a failed attempt to qualify for state the day earlier in their meet against John Burroughs, Brandt Wieberg, Cole Montgomery, Brian Fellows, and Easton Noble prepared for the anticipated event of the Lion Relays meet, the 200 meter Freestyle Relay.
The race started as Wieberg dove off the block, and swam the opening 50 meter freestyle leg of the relay (two lengths of the pool per 50 meters). Montgomery and Fellows followed, blitzing the middle legs of the relay, leaving Noble with a manageable time to swim the final 50 meters.
Noble finished with the stopwatches reading 1:34.77, sliding by with less than twenty-two milliseconds, less than the blink of an eye, underneath the required time to qualify for state, 1:34.99. And the four seniors achieved their goal, adding a second relay to their state lineup including the 400 meter relay (which qualified the day earlier), and two individual events (50 meter Freestyle, and 100 meter Breaststroke).
Within the past two meets of Thursday (versus John Burroughs) and Wednesday (Lion Relays event), the team did not only break the old school record in the 400 meter relay (swam by Eddie Sutphen, Brian Fellows, Jake Kehr, and Easton Noble), but also exceeded their coach’s expectations for the season.
“I am incredibly proud of my team, they did more than I thought they would,” said Kent Kehr, men’s swim team coach.
Kent Kehr added that the team is at the climax of its success for this season.
“Right now is the peak of our success, although we are looking ahead to the conference season too,” said Kent Kehr.
Although Kent Kehr points to further goals considering individual qualifiers such as Fellows qualifying in the 50 meter Freestyle, and Noble qualifying in the 100 meter Freestyle, over the past two meets, many swimmers goals have been achieved.
“My secondary goal for the season was to qualify for state, which obviously happened, and that’s so far the best moment of the year,” said Jake Kehr, senior team captain and part of the qualifying 400 meter Freestyle relay team.
Although the swim team’s season will hopefully end on a positive note at state, Kent Kehr emphasizes the need for swimmers in the following year, due to the loss of eleven seniors at the end of the season this year.
