The men’s swimming and diving team closed off the 2015-16 season with a 10th place finish at the IHSA state meet. The team took a step back from last year’s third-place finish.

Individual results include junior Sam Iida’s second place swim in the 500- yard free, with a time of 4:28.34. Iida also snatched second place in the 200- yard individual medley, with a time of 1:48.33. Senior Tommy Hagerty took fourth place in the 500-yard free, with a time of 4:33.91. Lastly, senior diver Patrick Tener got ninth place overall.

According to senior Tommy Hagerty, the boys stepped into the state meet with one goal: to place in the top five.

“Anything that went wrong extremely affected our final score,” Hagerty said. “[Iida] got second in his two events. If he got first like we thought, that would have significantly brought us up. [If I got] third instead of fourth like I was aiming for, [that] would have put us higher.”

Head Coach Keith MacDonald adds that the 400-yard free relay’s 10th place finish was a setback as well.

“Top five was one of our goals.” MacDonald said. “We would have had to do everything perfectly, but [the] high expectations for that relay weren’t accomplished. If there was one disappointment in the meet, that would have been it.”

Iida was the 500-free state champion last season, so walking into this season he felt a lot of pressure to get first place again. According to Iida, he was able to stay positive.

“The 200 [individual medley] was probably the best race I’ve had in all [of my] high school [career],” Iida said. “Colton Paulson (Notre Dame High School) beat me by a second or so.”

MacDonald believes Iida’s second place finish was far from a disappointment due to his personal improvement. Iida additionally acknowledges that his failure to meet the team’s high expectations served as a humbling experience.

“It was humbling to everybody because all of my teammates, and coaches thought I was going to win and I didn’t,” Iida said. “It just shows that statistics don’t matter when you’re swimming.”