Republic’s boys swim team has five swimmers — four freshmen and sophomore Jonathan Noell — and first-year coach Jordan Boyce says most of them came into this season without a swimming background.
Republic scored 90 points Tuesday at Foster Natatorium in Springfield and finished fifth in a six-team meet, with freshman Braedan Fergason third in the 200-yard individual medley in 2:37.60. Boyce says the racing is only part of what some of them have had to learn since August.
“They’ve learned how to swim and then also learned the system of the little pieces — like how do we get the timing equipment out, how do we reset the pool?” Boyce says. “So many moving pieces, like learning how to read a heat sheet. It’s been so crazy to watch them.”
Boyce says swimmers who have been at it for years will drop time once or twice in a season, and her five are doing it almost every week.
“It’s one of those hard things in swimming that you start out and you drop time all the time, and you get to a point where you may drop time once or twice for the entire season,” Boyce says. “They’re at a point right now that they’re dropping time almost every time that we put them in a race. It’s very encouraging for them, especially (being) young and inexperienced, that they get to see the wins every week.”
Fergason was also sixth in the 100-yard backstroke in 1:16.05, and he scored in all four of his events.
Blake Allen, Gabe Richardson and Noell all scored in the 50-yard freestyle, with Allen ninth in 33.27, Richardson 11th in 34.29 and Noell 12th in 36.31. It was the only individual event of the night in which Republic scored three times. Richardson finished ninth in the 100-yard freestyle in 1:16.50, Tytus Dorsey was ninth in the 200-yard freestyle in 3:13.35, and Allen and Noell were seventh and 10th in the backstroke.
Allen, Fergason, Richardson and Noell were fourth in the 200-yard medley relay in 2:37.73. Allen, Dorsey, Noell and Fergason were sixth in the 400-yard freestyle relay in 4:55.48, with Fergason swimming the anchor in 1:02.32. The two relays scored 44 of Republic’s 90 points.
Boyce says the five team members have a solid relationship.
“It’s fun to watch them see each other succeed,” she says. “They do a really good job of cheering for each other nonstop, and they’re constantly the five of them together everywhere we go.”
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