As students come into school and situate themselves in the places they spend the most time in, the swim and dive team arrive in room 301. At the computer is Head Varsity coach Mr. Winkeler working on chemistry and team practices.

Junior Matthew Spangler looks at a board which reads “83 days until state” and can’t help but anticipate a lengthy and demanding season.

83 days later Spangler reminisces of the day he read the board and each moment leading up the state meet.

Many challenges plagued the team, but the culprit that resulted in many other challenges was the various strains of flu’s. A team that call themselves a large family had been separated by illnesses.

“We need all the athletes there to train and keep the chemistry we have. It feels different when one person is gone, so when you have 95 percent of the team gone, it’s a bad feeling,” junior Matthew Margritier said.

The sickness began to suppress the team during one of the first meets, the annual Kickapoo Invitational in Springfield, Mo.

“It was good, but what happened was we started seeing the beginning of the sickness,” Winkeler said.

Winkeler acted fast and gave less rigorous workouts to sick athletes, but the action was not completely effective.

“We had about 95 percent of the team sick at one point or another. At one time, we had 60 percent of the team absent,” senior Joe Friztlen, said.

As a result, senior leadership became a difficult task to achieve. According to Coach Winkeler, the amount of absent athletes began to effect the team emotionally and resulted in apathy.

Those persistent swimmers and divers help to keep the Aquahawks successful, losing only one meet, the Park Hill Invitational.

The Aquahawks chances of filling a state qualifying roster ran short and the Greater Kansas City Invitational acted as one of the last chances.

The preliminaries began on Oct. 16th and the top 16 swimmers advanced the next day.

“We were still looking okay, but we lost some kids overnight,” Winkeler said.

Two state qualifying times were achieved, but more importantly, this meet marked the turning point in the season.

The illnesses began to drape away and slowly but surely athletes came back into full training and practice.

“When all the athletes started coming back, we were able to train with our relay teams, individual swimmers and just as a team. We started to develop the swimmers mindset,” Margritier said.

On Halloween, the team traveled to Springfield for the second Invitational. At the meet, 27 new state qualifying times were achieved and according to Coach Winkeler, this showed the team was back.

It was now time for the team to begin the tapering process. The tapering process allows the athletes to rest, but still maintains efficient training.

Thursday, Nov. 19th the swim team left for St. Louis and Matt Spangler looks back at the board that now reads “0 days till state”, the competition had arrived.

The team out performed any expectations, no matter how high, to score a record 400.5 points and outscore its closets opponent by 277 points.

“Its not about breaking records, the 400 points or winning in general. Its about focusing and doing our best,” Coach Winkeler said.