The men’s varsity swimming team wrapped up their season Feb. 25 with a ninth place finish at the state meet.

According to head coach Keith McDonald, South has a strong standing in the CSL South, with New Trier being their biggest competition. In the overall season the team had a 3-2 conference record, with loses to New Trier and Evanston.

“New Trier is probably the best team in the country right now,” he said. “Evanston we went back and forth [with] a lot, and then we were better than the other three [teams] pretty easily.”

Senior Ryan Brander explained their high finish in conference set a nice tone for the postseason.

“We got second in conference; it gave us a little precursor to what we could look forward to in state, so it was exciting,” Brander said.

The team this year was also led by seniors Thomas Pollick, J.J. Connor and Ryan Hianik.

Pollick feels that this year’s team has become very close.

“We’re all good friends,” Pollick said. “We’re always there to help and support each other, whether it’s in the pool or out of the pool.”

The team’s cohesiveness has led to success because of the seniors leading the team this year, according to MacDonald.

“We [have] a great senior class,” he said. “They are a very talented group that have totally taken ownership of the program and really loved and tried to strive for success.”

According to MacDonald, the team’s depth stretches far past the senior class.

“We had only one returning qualifier for state from last year and that was Pollick,” MacDonald said. “We ended up getting fourteen different times for state in ten events [this year] so that was just sensational.”

Some key swimmers this year also include junior Ethan Spalding and freshman Jon Salomon.

“[Salomon] has blended into the team really nice for a freshman and he has a good relationship with the entire team,” MacDonald said. “I’m looking forward to a lot of success in the years to come with him.”

According to MacDonald and Pollick, placing well in state was one of their aims this year.

“We got top ten overall in the state so that was definitely one of our big goals”, Pollick said. “We were happy about that.”

At the state meet the team was able to qualify all three of their relays, which included the 200 medley, 200 free and 400 free.

“We have never qualified all three relays for finals like we did so that was fantastic,” MacDonald said. “In particular, the 200 free relay was third in state and the 400 free relay also made final, and of the three relays I felt [the 400 free] was our weakest relay so to be in the top six was very nice.”

The 200 medley relay was disqualified at the state meet on Saturday because of an early starting jump.

“We qualified that relay for finals and Pollick jumped, meaning he left a little early off of the butterfly leg so we were disqualified,” MacDonald said. “It was disappointing at the time but the guys rallied and swam great on the next two relays.”

According to MacDonald, the season and the performance at state this year was great.

“We knew in the beginning of the year we didn’t have any superstars,” MacDonald said. “I mean, our big thing was [that] we didn’t have any returning state qualifiers and we ended up qualifying fourteen times, thirteen swimmers and one diver. That was the third highest in the state and an impressive run for this team.”