New Trier Boys Swimming won sectionals and a handful of swimmers qualified for the state championship on Feb. 17.

The swimmers who qualified were Charlie Scheinfeld, Patrick Gridley, Ryan Gridley, Ean Vandergraaf, Tommy Hackley, Nick Torre, Tony Bavas, and Pearson Oh.

“We don’t just have one or two good swimmers like we had in previous years or schools. We have a great range of depth and everyone has worked so hard for this moment all year,” said senior Michael Grant.

Another senior, Jacob Hagist, said,  “We won sectionals and swam out of our minds. I think before we were swimming fast enough to just win our meets but on Saturday we swam to not only beat but crush our opponents.”

The swim team also set a new state record for the 200 medley relay. Leadership team member and senior Kian Nematollahi said, “Last year we broke the state record in the 200 medley relay, which Lyons Township broke 10 minutes after our swim. This past week at sectionals we broke that record again, and hopefully break it once more at state.”

Along with breaking the state record, the team broke six pool records at sectionals. The state meet was February 23-24 at Evanston and the team hopes to ride their momentum and capture a state title.

A key player on the team is senior Charlie Scheinfeld, a commit to the University of Texas-Austin for swimming.

“Charlie has tremendous speed and personally the fastest breath stroke that I have ever witnessed. I can’t wait to see what he does at state,” Grant said. Scheinfeld is a three time state participant.

Another reason that the team is prepared to do so well at State was because of the way that they are coached and trained throughout the season.

“Our coaches pushed us to get faster and really work on our technique and practice at a state quality level every single time out there,” Nematollahi said. Grant also added, “Practicing 2 times a day over winter break sometimes breaking 10,000 yards, it’s ridiculous, but it’s all part of the tradition.”

Lastly, the team focused on bonding this year, to ensure that everyone felt a part of the team. “This year we bonded over Clash Royale. Our clan is at over 35,000 trophies and we’ve never missed a 10/10 clan chest,” Hagist said.

Nematollahi said, “We focused on really developing our strong team and building each other’s strengths in and out of the pool. We bonded well, we had a lot of fun hanging out with one another after practice each day to.”

While the team was put in tough situations for practicing, even practicing on New Year’s Eve, they never quit or let their teammates down.

While Scheinfeld makes waves as a commit to Texas, he is not the only one who is extremely important to the team. Twins Patrick and Ryan Gridley, Northwestern commits, are both standouts in the 200 IM and the backstroke, two key individual events that help boost the team’s overall scores for meets. Those three, along with the rest of the guys going to state, each thrive in their own special waves, can thrive in individual events or team events, and can go with short or long distance swims to.

While most of the team consists of seniors, New Trier Boys Swimming has proven time and time again to retool every year and compete for a state championship on a yearly basis.

The team has fought so hard this year and hopes to top another great year with a state championship, along with breaking state and pool records along the way. Hagist said it best when ending it with, “Seawolves strike as a pack.”