FHN Boys Swim Relay Qualifies for State With New School Record at the FZW Invitational

By Katie Head, Staffer

Published: October 14, 2023

A FHN swimmer prepares for a competition at Fort Zumwalt West.

Every new season is a fresh start. And while it comes with feelings of hope and excitement, for returners, there is also the lingering doubt; the wonder of if they are still good enough. However, four returners on FHN’s varsity swim team crushed these fears with an outstanding performance in their first meet this year.

At the Fort Zumwalt North Invitational on Aug. 26, the Boys 200 Medley team showed up and took third place, as well as swimming a state qualifying time. The team is composed of senior Andrew Lee, junior Edward Lee, senior Elias Avila, and junior Huntington Everhart, all returners on the boys varsity swim team. So far, they have not only set a PR at the FZN Invitational, they then beat that record again at a meet against Liberty High School on Sept. 7.

“Relays are more fun than solo events,” Everhart said. “Having my team rely on me pushes me to work harder in practice and during the race.”

The team is proud of being able to accomplish this to start their season. The Boys 200 Medley consists of four swimmers swimming 50 meters, each doing a different stroke, including the butterfly stroke, the breaststroke, freestyle and backstroke. The school record for the 200 medley is 1:45.21, which is only 3.52 seconds away from the current team’s record of 1:48.73. In recent years, the winning state times for the 200 medley have been around 1:35, so if they do set a school record, that leaves them just 10 seconds away from potentially medaling at state. This season has been culminating for a while now, as the four boys have been swimming this relay together since the 2022 season, and are so close to achieving their goal.

“I think that this year is our peak,” junior Edward Lee said. “We have many senior years, so I think this year is our best chance to set the school record with the relays. We continue to encourage each other, and our coaches are helping us succeed.”

A big difference with boys swim compared to other sports, is that unlike other sports that culminates in a district match, game, or meet that determines if the athletes compete at state, swimmers can qualify at any time throughout the season, by getting one of the top 32 times for each event. However, throughout the season as the other swimmers improve, they can get bumped down and out of the rankings. This makes it crucial to compete in every meet, because someone else might be trying harder and swimming faster, so a victory can turn quickly into defeat in the blink of an eye. The FHN swimmers have practiced harder than ever before to make sure that their placement and trip to state doesn’t fall apart.

“We’ve done a lot of sprint based training and distance based training to get them better prepared to race, and it has been really effective,” FHN head swim coach Shawn Farrar said.

Donate to FHNtoday.com

$170

$500

Contributed

Our Goal

Your donation will support the student journalists of Francis Howell North High School. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.