Trojans Boys’ Swim team earns fifth place

Amodhya Samarakoon, RubicOnline Creative Design Manager|January 22, 2017

The pool’s otherwise calm surface is broken by several simultaneous dives followed by intermittent splashes. It’s bright, warm, and the sound of water hitting hands and feet is punctuated by the cheers from coaches and teammates. Among the sea of swimmers at the South View Middle School Boys Swim meet, a group of boys wearing swim caps with yellow lettering, spelling “Trojans,” stand out.

The Trojan Boys Swim team, a combination of St. Paul Academy and Summit School and Highland students, competed on Jan. 21 and received fifth place overall.

“Our A relays all finished fourth out of about 24 relays, and our top swimmers swam well: Cesar Gallagher got third in the 100 butterfly, Noah Rice got fifth in the 100 freestyle, and I got fifth in the breaststroke,” senior and team captain Matthew Suzuki said.

The small team of two high schools swam against other much larger schools.

“We knew we weren’t going to win everything, but we wanted to do the best we could,” Suzuki said.

And, they succeeded: Suzuki states that many of his teammates dropped time, setting new personal records.

Suzuki has high hopes for the team’s future and the rest of the swimming season.

“I hope that we keep improving … I want our team to finish undefeated in our conference, get first every single event at the final conference meet, and then get either first or second in sections evens so we can make it to state,” he said.

Their next meet is at Humboldt at 5pm and they will be competing against Central High School.