The Plainfield boy’s swim team traveled to Evanston High School February 26 and 27 to compete in the IHSA state championship swim meet. The Thundercats placed 11 overall in their highest team finish in program history.

“Our state meet was fantastic and I couldn’t be more happy with how the boys swam,” said George Sam, coach.

The boys team consisted of four individual qualifiers, North Senior Brandon Tran, East Junior Kyle Potts, North Sophomore Ryan Netzel and East Freshman Merek Avery, all of whom swam individual events as well as the 200 medley relay.

Tran, Potts, Netzel and Avery swam the relay at prelims with a time of 1:35.41 which ultimately qualified them to swim the next day at finals. Only the top 12 finishers in each event qualify to swim at finals and get points for their teams.

“My favorite outcome of the meet was swimming the 200 medley relay at finals because it turned the meet into a real team effort,” said Sam.

At finals, the boys were able to move up a spot and place 11 with a time of 1:35.97, being the first relay to place at state in program history.

Sophomore Ryan Netzel swam two individual events, the 500 free and the 200 free, and was able to qualify for the final heat for both events.

After prelims, he sat at fourth place in the 200 free as well as the 500 free. At finals however, he ultimately placed fourth in the 200 free but moved up a spot for an all-state finish of third place in the 500 free with a time of 4:33.01. The 500 free is the longest race at the IHSA state meet consisting of 20 laps.

“I was surprised that I moved up a place in finals but I was also confident that I would do a little better than I did at prelims because of the fact that finals would be more intense and exciting,” said Netzel.

Netzel swam most of his 500 free in fifth place but when he hit the halfway mark, he picked up the pace and surged to the third place spot.

“To think about how Ryan came back during his race was incredible, he made the 500 exciting to watch,” said Sam.

Senior Brandon Tran finished his career on a strong note after finishing 15 in the 100 fly and third in the 100 breastroke which he swam at finals on Saturday.

After prelims, Tran sat at third place in the 100 breastroke with high hopes of making a lasting impression.

“I was psyched that I dropped .98 seconds from my seeded time, but then I also knew that there was going to be some major competition in the final heat. I went into my prelim race with way more enthusiasm than finals, but I still managed to take third place and end on a good note,” said Tran.

The time difference between the first place and third place finish in the 100 breast was .14 of a second.

“The fact that Brandon ended on a good note was exciting and left a lasting mark on the younger guys on the team. He’s the first guy who’s qualified for state all four years, helped carry the team to an 11 place finish overall, and holds four team records. The rest of the team hopes to honor Brandon by building off what they did at state this year,” says Sam.

While there were many firsts for the Plainfield Thundercats at this year’s state meet, it also marked the end of Tran’s impressive high school swimming career.

“I feel that I’ve completed my job of creating hope for the future of Plainfield Swimming and I see my end as a stepping stone for all incoming swimmers. I couldn’t have been able to achieve this without the never-ending support of my family, coaches and teammates,” said Tran.