NCMP is a team comprised of Newton-Colfax-Mingo-Pella students coached by Lucas Warner. They had an impressive finish at the Wahawk Invite with second place and scored a total of 324 points. Pella sent six students to compete with NCMP: seniors MacK Copeland, Drew Fuller, JJ Spratt, Nathan Stoltzfus, and sophomores Caleb Punt, and Brody VanZee.

For VanZee’s first season on NCMP, he appreciated how supportive the environment was. When anyone was swimming, there would always be someone at the end of the lane cheering them on, allowing the team to get better times.

“It was awesome to see my time get better and better. I think my teammates and I all did a really good job of encouraging each other and working together as a team to get better times,” said VanZee.

With the encouraging atmosphere at practices or meets, NCMP had a very successful season. They had 3 individual events along with 3 relays go on to state to compete and placed high in every event. Only the top 24 fastest relays in the state go on to compete at state, and for NCMP to have its 400 free, 200 free, and 200 medley relay go shows the success they had this past season.

“This was a very successful season for everyone on the team this year, as we all dropped times in every event and made it to state. We also placed higher this year in meets than previous years,” described Copeland.

For seniors Copeland and Fuller, diving off the blocks happened for the last time at districts and state in February. NCMP had 10 seniors on its team this year; the seniors made a big impact on the team atmosphere and the people around them.

“We will also be losing a very fun group. The seniors showed up with good attitudes and helped keep practices light-hearted by making others smile and laugh,”said Warner. “Going to need some young guys to step up and start learning a few more jokes!”

Although the swim season has come to a close for this year, the lessons each member learned will stay with them. High School swimming taught dedication, hard work, and confidence to each of the swimmers Warner described through his experiences during High School swimming.

“I personally think that high school swimming is one of the best high school experiences I have had,” said Spratt. “It gave me a team and, more importantly, the confidence to improve myself.”