Boys Swim and Dive Celebrates Their Seniors

The Niles West boys swim and dive swam in their last home meet this past Friday, Feb. 3 against the Evanston Wildkits. They also held their senior night honoring the class of 23′ on the team. The boys swam very well and honored the seniors throughout the whole night.

The seniors were called upon directly right after the diving section of the meet. They got to bring their families down from the crowd and walk through a path created by underclassmen. As they were going through the seniors received flowers while a teammate recited the seniors’ favorite part of the season and advice they have for the team.

“I enjoyed my time here through all four years, I was once a freshman too and now I’m on the other end of it, so I am really glad to see it all through and I don’t regret a single second of what happened over these four years,” senior Nikola Tadic said.

This was one of Niles West’s best seasons according to junior Zach Guerrero, the boys have broken many records and put in hard work every day. “There is like an excitement right now because West has never really been this quick… we have broken a ton of records up there, so it’s definitely not something West is used to,” Guerrero said.

Some of the records broken this season were the boy’s 400 relay by the freshmen and sophomores of the varsity team, and the boys’ frosh/soph team broke the 200 free relay record. This Friday Tadic also broke the pool record for the 200 free.

The boys have progressed tremendously throughout the season, Guerrero has been improving on his relays and many other swimmers have accomplished their goal for this season. However, all this preparation and improvement is going to be for the last meet of the season.

“For swimming, the most important thing is the last swim of the year and making it to state,” head coach Daniel Vanderjeugdt said.

The boys last meet is going to be this Saturday, Feb. 11, during practice this past week they have been tapering, meaning the boys are going a bit easier than usual at practice to prepare and rest their bodies for the big race.

For Tadic though he does not seem to be done yet, “Coach Vandy is not going to be tapering me,” Tadic said, “I still have club to do and to continue to the summer, I am not done yet.”

Along with being tremendous swimmers, the boys have been exceptionally close this year as well. “I have been swimming for three years and we have never been this close, and I think a lot of it is because the young kids have brought it, they are really fun and inspire us too,” Guerrero said

“The cohesiveness they have showering in the diver’s showers after practice every day for a half hour that’s the best thing,” Vanderjeugdt said, thinking of varsity’s best moment is as a team.

The boys are always there to cheer one another on, and many players on the team showed up to support the frosh/soph conference the next day, Saturday, Feb. 4. They painted on themselves to intensify their support for them, hoping it will motivate them to swim their best.

Overall the Niles West boys swim team has had a very successful and fulfilling season. Give the boys support for their last meet this Saturday, Feb. 11.