Ready to break records this season the boys’ swim and dive team have already won their first two meets. On Friday, Dec. 9th, the boys raced Niles North, the varsity team beating them by one point.

It was a close meet, with everyone who competed giving it their all to win their event, but it all came down to the last race, the 400-meter relay. Though North won the relay, West was able to score enough points to take the title of champion home.

With one their fastest swimmers, senior Nikola Tadic, competing at junior nationals, head coach Daniel Vanderjeugdt was very proud of the boy’s performance and their deserved win, “We swam very well, we knew it was going to come down to the last relay and put a lot of pressure on kids to step up and swim fast – at the end, they pulled it out by one point, and that was pretty awesome,” Vanderjeugdt said.

This year the team is exceptionally young, with many of their fastest swimmers on varsity being underclassmen. “We are like a young team we got a lot of fast freshmen that came in and like last year there were fast freshmen that came in so it’s a young team, we are looking really fast,” junior Zach Guerrero said. There is definitely a nice future set for the boys according to Guerrero.

One of the biggest goals for this season is definitely to be at the top of their conference, which won’t be a breeze since the boys have really fast competing schools to go against. Guerrero is really hoping to have the team place third in the conference this year, it would be one of his most significant accomplishments.

With practice every day, either before or after school, or sometimes both for varsity it’s certain that the boys are pushing to get better every day.  “We’re all ready to have a great season and push ourselves to be the best swimmers that we can,” sophomore Marcus Moldovan said.

“My number one expectation is that every young man on this team has a lifetime best time at the end of the year, that’s all I work for,” Vanderjeugdt said. He has been a swim coach for 30 years and is now in his 27th year coaching the Wolves. “Watching the boys succeed that’s probably the biggest thing, watching them grow over the 4 years,” Vanderjuegdt said, talking about his favorite thing about being a coach.

The boys are working hard to win their meets and be one of the best at conference, so show your support for them at their next meet, Friday, Dec. 16th against Maine East.