The Irish Swim Team Has Highlights At State To Cap Off Their Season By Peter Leary

SEATTLE-The Irish swim team finished their 107 day season at the state swim meet on February 19th. The team finished the season going 7-1 in the regular season. They got 2nd at the metros meet, 5th at the district meet, and 9th at the state meet.

-Shown here is coach Tom Schutte winning the coach of the year award.

Some highlights of the meet were sophomore Jack Skarda got 2nd in the A-final of the 100 yard breaststroke. Skarda only lost to Charlie Arnold who won the event at junior nationals. Senior Aidan Schutte got 6th in the same event and in a cool scenario his dad got to give him his last medal of his high school career.

The team going into this season had a lot of questions. There was the potential for a strong season. The team knew they had key athletes returning like Owen Weber, Aidan Schutte, Paco Palacian, Jack Skarda, Conor Bentenson, and Jack Wolff. But also there were some new faces that turned out to contribute strongly to the team. New faces like Nick Behrens, Maks Karman, and new diver Andrew Kloeppel.

With all of these athletes they clearly had a very deep team. This would be on clear display in meets like against Nathan Hale where a majority of the seniors were gone on encounter. In this meet the team dominated, winning 12 of the 12 events. Certain meets of the season like Garfield and Roosevelt posed their biggest challenges. But they passed them with flying colors.

Even though the team is graduating 12 seniors this year the future of the team looks bright. As prior mention sophomore Jack Skarda got 2nd in state only behind the nation leader in the event. Next year eyes will be on him as a favorite to win state in the event. Also freshmen Maks Karman and Nick Behrens were able to contribute greatly to the team as well as their diving teammate Luke Schinkel.

The team meet and exceeded their expectations this season. A team that welcomes anybody new with open arms. As they re-gear and re-tool for next season they will always aim higher.