Co-captains Richie Murkin and Ty Moore said they believe that conference went very well and that all of the boys did excellent. All in all, the boys swam 20 events, 19 of which were personal best.

Murkin said that he thinks the season went really well, especially considering the small number of people that swam this year. Although he isn’t swimming next year, instead he will be training for Para Rescue for the Air Force, he said he has had many great memories.

“I think this season was stupendous,” Murkin said, “My favorite part was getting three medals.”

Among the top few time drops, Murkin had an incredible drop between the Prelims meet the day before, and the Finals meet the following day. He dropped an astonishing five seconds between the two days, on just four laps of breast stroke.

Moore said that his plans for conditioning include joining a year round swim team and joining William Jewel’s team next year in college.

“Everybody did so much better than expected,” Moore said, “I loved taking away three medals.”

Junior Nick Reeves said that he really enjoyed swim team this year, he said that he will definitely return to swim next year. His conditioning plans are swimming on his own, and joining the summer recreational league.

“I think conference went very well,” Reeves said, “We all worked hard and it showed in every event at conference.”

Future Co-captains Lucas Villaverde and Dakota Rosenfelt agree that the boys really pulled through as a team. Villaverde said he hopes to have a good season next fall and that there will be more boys. He said that he wants to go into the new season already beating his times from last year.

“I improved all of my times at conference,” Villaverde said. “I’m going to work out and participate in the summer league so I can beat my times though.”

Rosenfelt also said that he wants more boys to join the team next year. He said that he is looking forward to being the captain and really bringing the team together.

“I’m going to join winter conditioning and do the summer league along with various toning workouts to help with my shoulder muscles,” Rosenfelt said, “I loved walking away with three medals. It was an awesome end to the season.”

Head Coach Martijn Keltner said that the boys did very well because there were 95 percent best swim times. He said that this season was hard one to adjust to after previous years because of the small size of the team, but that they pushed through it.

“The quality of our points at conference were better than previous years,” Keltner said. “Last year it was about 17 points per person, this year we had 27 points per person with 7 less people on the team.”

The whole team will miss the seniors and are sad that this was the last meet, though they hope to have a fantastic season next fall.

Murkin said that he will miss all of the boys on the swim team. He said that he will miss them because they are cool people and they are fun to be around.

“My all time favorite part of swim team has been making new friends,” Murkin said.

Moore also said that he made life long friendships through the swim team.

“Some of the best things about the swim team was meeting all of the news guys and actually being good at the sport,” Moore said.

 Both of the captains said that they loved meeting people that they would have not known before and being friends with them.

Moore said that he has had many memories in his high school swimming career and hopes to have many more as he begins to swim for his college team next fall. He is still exploring what he wants to do with his life after high school, but does know that he will swim. He said that he feels like he has improved in the years he has swam.

“I am going to keep conditioning for college swim,” Moore said. “I’m really excited.”

Murkin said that after high school, he plans on going into the United States Air Force. He has already joined and reached “Iron Man” standards for the test, an impressive feat for such a young person.

Moore said that the favorite part of the last home meet was swimming a 100 yard IM (Individual Medley) during the 400 yard free style relay. Murkin said that his favorite part was watching Lucas Villaverde tear up when opposing senior Tyler Nicholes said “good job” to him.

“It was cool because Tyler is Lucas’s hero,” Murkin said.

Head Coach Martijn Keltner said that during their last home meet, the boys swam 14 out of 18 season best in their events. He said that was especially impressive because the meet happened to be in the middle of the hardest, most tiring week of the year at the very end of the season.

He said that he will miss his seniors very much. He said he will definitely miss the boys’ work ethic and their leadership.

“I wish the seniors luck and we will definitely miss them,” Keltner said.

The team wish seniors luck as they go into their college swimming careers.

Murkin said that he thought he could have done better, but he still did well. He came in second place in the 100 breaststroke, four lengths of swimming breaststroke on your stomach.

Returning Swimmer, Junior Lucas Villaverde said his favorite event was the 200 medley relay, an event where four swimmers swim in the same lane at different times. Each swimmer swims two laps of a stroke and the final time is when the fourth swimmer returns.

“I did alright at the meet, it was good to see where we’re at when we swim at home,” Villaverde said. “But my favorite memory from the whole season was swimming at Mizzou, it was the best meet.”

Junior Nick Reeves said that he enjoyed the 200 freestyle relay the most. He said that the team improved a lot on time and that he hopes that will continue through the whole season. Reeves said that he enjoys the meets, but he also enjoys hanging out with the team.

“My favorite thing from this season was when we went to Shakespeare’s Pizza after the Mizzou meet,” Reeves said. “It was fun, good company, good food, and interesting passing people.”

Very few swimmers enjoy junior Dakota Rosenfelts favorite event, the 100 butterfly. More often than not, the boys love to swim the 100 freestyle. Rosenfelt also enjoys that event because he recently got his time down to one minute flat.

“I love it because I feel powerful when I do fly,” Rosenfelt said.

Junior Ian Conners said he thought the meet went well because all of the Pirates were more comfortable at home. Conners dropped one minute and 15 seconds on the 500 freestyle, a grueling 20 laps without stopping.

“My goal for this year is to set fast times by the end of the season, then beat them at the beginning of next season,” Conners said.

Swim Coach Martijn Keltner said he personally enjoys the 200 medley relay. Keltner said that he likes it when the boys get good splits for their 25s and 50s.

“Our A team for the medley relay got the best time in the four years that I have been here at our home meet,” Keltner said.

Keltner said he also loves seeing everybody improve so much as the season goes on. He said that the returning swimmers are getting better times than they were at last year’s conference.

“My philosophy is to teach the proper technique to improve times while still having fun,” Keltner said. “One the most important things to do is to make sure the boys maintain interest in the sport though.”

The boys continue to improve as the season goes on. With conferences being only one month away, they said they hope to keep dropping time so that they can all do their best.

Swim Team Co-Captain Ty Moore said he thinks the meet went great and that all of the boys were excited about their time drops. Moore himself beat his record for the 100 freestyle, going accomplishing four laps in the pool without stopping. His goal was to get under one minute, and on his event he finished at 59.29 seconds.

Moore said that his favorite event this season is the 100 backstroke, which is four laps in the pool swimming on your back. He said he worked on his backstroke all year. He participated in the spring conditioning at the community center and swam for the summer rec league.

“We all had great time drops at the meet,” Moore said. “But I’m hoping for some amazing time drops on backstroke this season.”

Moore said he hopes to medal at conference in seventh place or under. He said he believes that if everybody on the team stays dedicated, everyone will have more of a chance at individual medals at conference.

Junior Lucus Villaverde said he saw improvement from the last meet; a lot more people dropped times. He said that his favorite event from the meet was the 100 breaststroke, which is four lengths of breaststroke without stopping. Villaverde said he likes breaststroke because he is one of the fastest on the team for that stroke.

“I always do well on breaststroke and coach is always satisfied,” Villaverde said.

 Villaverde said he thinks the season just keeps getting better. He said the team practices harder each day and that the coach teaches the swimmers new techniques. Villaverde said he believes that when the team applies the techniques, then they succeed and do a good job.

Junior Diver Trevor Goucher said the divers and swimmers did well. He said that he enjoys being able to watch the swimmers as well as divers. Goucher said that his favorite dive is the back dive with a half twist.

“It’s the hardest dive that I can do, but it looks the best,” Goucher said.

Junior Nick Reeves said he thinks the meet was very well for the team, and that they will do better at every meet. Reeves said he enjoys the 50 freestyle the best, a quick two lengths of free. He said he believes that the event really tests how good the swimmer actually is.

“My personal goal this year is to get 30 seconds or below on my 50 freestyle,” Reeves said.

Head Coach Martijn Keltner said the boys did very well for only their second meet and said almost everybody beat their records at the meet. He said there were only four that didn’t meet their records and they were seconds and points away.

“Our returning swimmers are way ahead of what they were last year,” Keltner said, “and the new swimmers are continuing to drop time.”

Keltner said that he hopes to get third place at conferences this year and he would like to have at least seven varsity medalists. He said that he believes they can reach that goal if the team continues on as they have.

“Nick dropped over a minute on the 500 free, 20 laps, and Luke dropped 24 seconds on his 200 free, eight laps,” Keltner said. “Luke also dropped 17 seconds on the 100 freestyle, four laps, which was impressive.”

Keltner said that he sees this season going very well. The team continues to work on technique and fine-tuning their strokes but they all hope to do well at conferences in November.

The 2011 boys swim and dive team consists of ten swimmers and three divers. With only four returning swimmers, more than half of the team are new swimmers and all new divers. Head Coach Martijn Keltner has worked with the returning swimmers, rebuilding their muscles and fine-tuning their skills. He has also worked on training and teaching the new swimmers, helping them learn new strokes and the correct way to execute them.

Many of the swimmers said the outcome of the first meet shocked them. The coaches said they thought so too. Keltner said he didn’t expect such great times from everybody. He also said the rest of the season should get better, especially time wise.

“The meet went really well,” Keltner said. “Times were great, there were 78% lifetime bests today.”

Senior Richie Murkin and junior Ty Moore, this year’s swim captains, were also happy with the meet. Murkin said he thought the whole team did pretty well. He said he believes that in the future, the team will be able to beat more and more teams.

“The meet was good,” Murkin said. “I think we will improve from here.”

New swimmers like Ian Conners and Reed Murkin said they think that they will do even better at meets now that they know what to expect. Reed said he sees improvement in himself since the beginning of the season.

“I can swim longer and faster than I could when practices started,” Reed said. “I would recommend it for others but it is a strength sport .”

Conners said he believes he did great at the first meet. He said the other guys did well too. Conners led the way for the new swimmers, dropping eight seconds on the 50 meter freestyle and a full 21 seconds on the 100 meter free.

“I think everybody will get a little bit faster over the season and we will be able to beat more of our times,” Conners said.

The Belton Dive team also did well at the meet. The two competing divers took eighth and tenth place, scoring both the dive and swim team points. Freshman diver John Oberdorf said he thinks the swim team and divers did great. He said he believes that throughout the season the divers will continue to tune up their dives and add some more.
“I think I could have done better, but it was our first meet so we all did pretty good,” Oberdorf said.

Dive Coach Crystal Alexander said she couldn’t be more proud of the divers. Alexander said her divers performed all six dives and both broke a 100 on their scores, which was her goal. She said her long term goal would be that instead of knowing just six dives, the divers would be able to compete in an 11 dive varsity meet. All in all she said she thinks the swimmers and divers did great and she’s looking forward to the next meet.

“My favorite part was seeing all of the new swimmers and divers compete and have fun at their first meet,” Alexander said.

The BHS swim team took 19th place at the competition at MU. Different members of the team took different places at the competition, but one member of the team stood out from all of the rest.

Senior, Steven Coleman swims in the relay section for the Varsity swim team. Coleman was the only member of the team to go to the finals. He swam in the 50 freestyle in the competition and placed 16th out of the 22 other boy swimmers going against him.

“All of the schools that competed at the competition were crazy good, so i don’t think we did that bad overall,” Coleman said.

Certain things that could have been done to help the team improve their ranking at the swim meet, were to practice harder and not to give up when they think they’re going to lose. The team will also start wearing drag, swim trunks, at their practices so they can get used to the weight holding them back. This would cause them to drop time at their future meets.

The team had a long day at Mizzou, and didn’t end up getting home until late that night. The teams’ hard work was worth the effort, because they placed at the meet and also got to show off their swimming skills.

Junior Travis Tarry had the only first place finish, winning 1^st in the 100 meter breast-stroke.  Tarry placed 3^rd in the 100 meter freestyle race.

Freshman Jeffery Hartnett placed 2^nd in the 100 meter breast-stroke.  Junior Eli Chastain placed 3^rd in the 100 meter breast-stroke.

Junior Jacob Blankenship took 3^rd in the 500 meter freestyle, and Sophomore Geoff Grigg placed 3^rd in the 200 meter freestyle.  Sophomore Richie Murkin placed 3^rd in the 100 meter back-stroke.

The relay team which consisted Freshman Lucas Villaverde, Hartnett, Sophomore Patrick Thompson and Chastain, took 3^rd in the 200 meter freestyle relay, and 2^nd in the 400 meter freestyle relay.

The second relay team which consisted of Grigg, Murkin, Junior Nick Willey, and Blankenship, took 2^nd place in the 200 meter freestyle relay.

Coach Martijn Keltner said that the team did really well for their first meet, there were a lot of good and surprising swims.

“It was a lot of guy’s first meet ever and they showed no signs of nervousness,” Keltner said.  “Now that they have an idea of what meets will be like, they should be more focused.”