The Niles West boys’ swimming season is well underway. Having competed in a multitude of matches, the boys look ahead to the end of the season as the state playoffs are in the distance.

For one of the senior captains, Miki Canak, preparation towards the individual events is in place, as they look forward to what’s next.

“The team is looking ahead and preparing for conference/sectionals by working on exercises specific to their events. While some of these exercises are more strength focused sprints, others work on endurance and distance,” Canak stated.

Canak and his teammates are eager to improve on their teams skills and hope to see progression as the season goes on.

“Overall, the team has improved on starts off the block, fast swimming in and out of the wall, as well as breath control. For the future, we are hoping to improve on the team’s overall exchanges over the block during relays,” Canak said.

Other captain, Luka Simic hopes to works on improving the skills important for having a successful playoff run this year.

“It would be very vital for the team to improve individually, so that we can bring down some of the relays to state as well,” Simic said.

Jack Plusker, one of the other captains, plans on training hard and keeping a good work ethic needed to develop as a swimmer and overall athlete.

“The season has gotten off to a good start. We are all swimming fast and improving quickly. For the remainder of the season, I expect everyone to keep training hard and working to become a better swimmer and athlete,” Plusker stated.

Being the captain on a varsity sports team is not easy, but being a role model for the other swimmers on the team is a feature that comes naturally.

“Swimming can be a very taxing sport, so as one of the captains it is important to have a good work ethic and be a role model for the underclassmen and boys that are just starting to swim,” Plusker said.

The improvement the swim team has had this season has been pretty outstanding, when playoffs come, they will be ready.

“I would say we are holding up pretty well. We are all around our season best and even some personal bests. I can say that the team is going to be fired up around conference and sectionals time, and we will swim fast!” Simic stated.

The IHSA sectionals for boys’ swimming kicks off next month on the 19th. Best of luck to the team.