Boys' Swimming Falls Short to Brunswick
This past weekend, the boys' varsity swim team hosted Brunswick School. Exeter’s swimmers trained as hard as possible in the three days leading up to the meet in anticipation of Brunswick’s historically strong swim program. This was just their second meet of the season after handily defeating Suffield Academy 115-71 before leaving for Winter Break. Despite a valiant effort, Big Red suffered a close loss, 88-99.
"The team knew it wouldn’t be an easy meet yet they showed up determined and focused to swim as fast as possible."
The team knew it wouldn’t be an easy meet yet they showed up determined and focused to swim as fast as possible. Despite their loss, there were still some notable races. Lower Andrew Benson stormed through the 100-yard freestyle, touching half a body length ahead of Brunswick’s top sprinter. In the penultimate event, the 100-yard breaststroke, lower Charlie Venci cruised past the competition, outclassing the field by more than two seconds. Prep Aren Mizuno also lauded senior and co-captain Taylor Walshe for throwing down a pair of blistering times in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle events. Mizuno pointed out that they were “great times [and were] similar to his results at Interschols last year” which is an impressive feat given the team is still at an early point in their season. He credited this to Walshe’s athletic commitment to train over vacation.
One of the team’s biggest challenges they had to overcome, was the small amount of time before the meet. The team only had three days to prepare including training during the snow day despite the blizzard. After the break, several of the swimmers were out of shape, “Most of the swimmers had taken break from swimming during the holiday,” Mizuno claimed. This resulted in the team’s lack of proper conditioning needed for the meet. Mizuno elaborated, “Our loss reflects our lack of training.” However, the team is eager to get back up to peak performance.
Brunswick came to the swim meet with an equally strong desire to win. However, unlike Big Red, Brunswick trained extensively and showed up with superior conditioning. “They just came off of a week long training trip in Florida with a lot of primed swimmers,” Senior Jamie Cassidy pointed out.
Looking back on the event, the team has acknowledged that there is room for improvement. The team is prepared for some grueling practices this week to lay the foundation for their upcoming meet against Deerfield Academy on Saturday as well as the rest of the season. Upper Jeremy Xu said, “This week’s practices will be tough as we are all in the process of getting into better shape. We will make sure this does not happen again.” Not only tougher swim practices, but according to Mizuno, “We will work hard every day and have early morning lifts.
This year Exeter will be hosting Interschols on March 3rd. Although this date seems far away, the meet has been on the teams mind since the first day of training. Mizuno said, “We hope to work extremely hard to impress the home audience watching.” Last season they placed 6th during Interschols at Hotchkiss however, the team feels they can definitely improve this year. “At Interschols we expect to win,” Xu said. They have high hopes as the day gets closer, and will continue to work hard in practice to dominate the competition at the end of the season. With new talent from the younger classes, and experienced seniors looking to succeed in their last season at Exeter, the boy’s swim team will stop at nothing till they achieve their goals. Cassidy was extremely confident in the team's abilities. “We’re winning the ship. By Interschols we will be the best team there. I believe that 100 percent.”