With the end of the summer being focused some of the best swimmers of all time, the Clayton High School Boy’s Swim Team had a lot to swim for. At the moment, it is an understatement to say it is exciting to be around these swimmers. With a record of 10W-1L, a very impressive figure to say the least, confidence and excitement lead up to the conference at the end of October.

Although they have yet to finish their season, and all the dual meets, the skill from new and old swimmers alike has revitalized a team making it one of the highest performing fall sports in our school at the moment. As senior Spencer Anderson says, “The swim team is the best it has ever been. We have some of the fastest swimmers and the state and we’re going to win the conference for the first time in over forty years.”

Just as Spencer has mentioned, for the past 40 years Clayton’s swim teams have not won our conference. Even in recent years, the swim team has gotten the third place pretty consistently. However, confidence is high that, if everyone performs, the first place at the conference could be a huge possibility.

At this conference, usually consisting of rival teams like Ladue and Parkway West among others, the swim team is already safely ahead. With a 10-1 record, they have beaten everyone else in their conference in dual meets, with the exception of a close meet with Ladue. They even beat longtime rivals Parkway West and Central, for the first time in decades.

It is great to see swimmers come this far, and exciting to see them win. The swim team is one step away from making it back to the top of our conference. As Captain Tristan Belzer put it, “I’ve seen a lot of growth from returning swimmers and we got a lot of very fast freshmen” followed up by his co-captain Tiger Chen noting, “Our last and toughest hurdle this season is conference, but I think we have a lot of potentials to do great things.”

As he puts it best, “If everyone swims their hardest, we could win the conference.” Which hasn’t happened since the 70s.

I think everyone is ready for another W, but only time will tell on this amazing swim season so far.