Recent weather problems affected swim and dive practices last week, leaving the diving team less prepared than they would have liked for Saturday’s meet.

Despite the lack of practices, senior Zane Kohl and freshman Zeke Kohl both qualified for state and Zane earned second place overall.

“Because of the weather, we only had two days of practice,” head diving coach Al Days said. “Zane and Zeke [Kohl] were pretty rusty.”

Although the Kohl brothers and sophomore Sam Erker are the only divers, they practice as a team to constantly improve. That training has allowed the team to have players at the top of most meets.

On the swimming side of things the team has been preparing in all sorts of ways for the upcoming invite. One of those ways was hundred hundreds. The swimmers had from 3:30 to 5:45 p.m. to complete as many 100 meter-laps as they could trying to get to a hundred. Each lane has one or two counters that help to keep track of how many laps they’ve done.

“We’ve been doing that for decades, most likely since we’ve had a swim team,” head swim coach Alex Brown said. This is one of their most important practices before they start to taper and wind down for the season.  

“It’s a really hard workout, so it helps us prepare for our biggest meet.” sophomore Sean Anderson said.

Only two guys, juniors Xander Say and Dominik Lochmann actually made it to 100 although many of them came close. Not only were the guys preparing in practice but also in their daily lives.  

“We work really hard all week and get a good night sleep before,” Anderson said.
“The night before I got a few extra hours of sleep and worked out in advanced weights less than I normally would, basically treating it like a meet day,” sophomore Dominic Palmieri said.

The team does this to prepare for all the tough competition ahead. Brown has said in the past that the team needs to work on their stamina and the hundred hundreds is helping them do just that.

“It gets very tiring, but knowing that this is what’s gonna help us win league keeps us going for all one hundred.” Anderson said.

The team will spend this week practicing for the Manhattan Invite on Friday and Saturday at the Kansas State Natatorium.