By Jennifer Gomez | Staff writer, Photographer, Sports writer, Associate Editor
While Kenoshans were bundling up in coats this winter, the Indian Trail High School & Academy boys swim team were suiting up and hitting the pool. This year the team sent four of the best varsity swimmers to Madison to com- pete in the WIAA swimming championships. The line-up included Siva Shankar, Colin Dobnikar, Malcolm Andrew, and Jake Gremer.
“We had the opportunity to go to state last year as well, so we already knew what to expect. We practice our event countless times, so we knew exactly what to do,” said Shankar, IT boys swim team captain and Biotechnology Academy senior.
All four boys competed as a unit in the 200 medley relay, with Andrew also competing in the 100 meter butterfly as an individual.
For his individual event, Andrew came in 21st and had a finishing time of 54.47s.
“It felt great going to state. I worked all season to qualify for state and it all paid off,” said Andrew, a varsity swimmer and General Studies senior.
The Hawks ended up finishing 22nd in their relay event with a time of 1:43:79s.
“Not our best time of the season, but considering the people we swam against and the environment, we did well,” said Shankar.
This state meet would be the last high school swimming event in the careers of Shankar, Andrew and Dobnikar.
“I couldn’t imagine my life without being on the swim team. The past four years of swimming have been a blur with ups and downs, but I wouldn’t change them for anything,” said Shankar.
“I’ve gotten stronger, faster, made tons of new friends, gotten to know people, and bettered myself as a person in general,” he said.