“The unique thing about swimming is that anyone can do it; if you are willing to put in the work, you improve greatly no matter your physical background,” said Nick Weslow, forerunner on NDA’s Swimming Team who also made NDA history by qualifying at state this year.

Weslow started swimming when he was eight because he was inspired by his sister who was involved in the sport, and he eventually became really good at it.

“Swimming makes me feel accomplished. Throughout my 10 years in the sport, I have found myself able to look back at how much I vastly improved from year to year,” he said.

The senior swims both for the school team and a club team, and he made state for both. The Notre Dame Swim Team practices at the Kroc Center every day except for Tuesdays and Thursdays, but Weslow still swims daily.

“It personally takes up most of my after-school time, but that is because I do the sport year round,” he said.

Although it is pretty time consuming for him, Weslow has a big passion for the sport and has also learned many things from it.

“I have learned how to push myself, to work towards my goals, and how to take a loss,” he said.

Weslow admits that he has had tough periods throughout his career, but it never stopped him.

“The end result doesn’t matter as long as you push yourself as hard as you can and try to make every stroke stronger than the last for future events.”  

And that mentality has really helped him as it brought him to the state championship after placing second place in the sectional races (200 and 500 yard freestyle.)

Although he didn’t drop any time in the competition, he really enjoyed participating and still placed top 16 in state.

But Weslow’s career is coming to an end this year as he is going off to college. He is very thankful for his journey and really advises people to swim too.

“I really enjoyed being a part of the first boys swim team for NDA, even if it was small, and I just hope that the sport stays alive at the school for years to come,” said the senior.

He thinks the sport is great because it has a lot of variety with different strokes which gives people more opportunities to be good at it. He really thinks more people should join the team, and he has a final word of advice for those thinking about it.

“You should work hard and push yourself to your limits, but you have to make sure you enjoy it,” he said. “You are going to have bad events or bad games, and you need to learn to pick yourself up from them and find enjoyment even when you lose.”