Douglas Miles

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – With a roster stacked with seniors across multiple high schools the West High boys’ swimming team has forged a unique link.

Spend a few minutes with any of its members and it does not take long for words like, ‘love,’ ‘connection,’ ‘chemistry’ and ‘special’ to be used to describe the bond among teammates.

It is the type of atmosphere that is crucial yet can be overlooked in the pursuit of a championship.

“Extremely (special),” said West High coach Byron Butler, who will lead his team into the state swimming championships Friday and Saturday at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center in Iowa City. “We have got 18 seniors on the team, that is the majority of this group, so I don’t take that for granted. I think the team culture is going to shift a lot after these guys graduate, but I am just trying to enjoy every minute I get with them.”

On a high school swimming team, leadership can take various forms.

Beit chatting with teammates, keeping the mood light with humor, fostering chemistry or providing encouragement, vocal leadership is essential.

West High has two fantastic examples in seniors Kirk Brotherton and Jordan Christensen.

“They definitely encourage each other,” Butler said. “They help other guys with their goal-setting. They are the vocal leaders and they are also the biggest cheerleaders for their teammates. They are just two great guys to have on your squad.”

Of West High’s 11 state qualifiers, seven are seniors.

Brotherton – an Iowa City Liberty student – is seeded second in the 50-yard freestyle and sixth in the 100-yard freestyle, while Christensen is seeded fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke and 13th in the 200-yard individual medley.

They are two of a whopping eight West High swimmers that each qualified in two individual events.

“I feel like we are a pretty balanced team and everyone has their role,” Brotherton said. “I can lead people mentally just from experience and how to perform in a championship meet. But I feel like everyone on this team has the responsibility to hold themselves accountable for the person next to them.”

Relay race success has become a staple of the West High program.

The melding of talent and chemistry has helped West win nine relay state titles in the last eight years, including a 200-yard medley relay title last season that featured 2022 state meet returnees Christensen, senior Boyd Skelley and sophomore Holden Carter.

This season, Brotherton will complete the third-seeded 200 medley relay quartet as West High seeks to defend last season’s state title in the opening event of the meet.

“Most of it is out of the pool,” Brotherton said when asked about the chemistry within relay foursomes. “We are so connected. We love each other and we want to perform for each other. I think when you have that special connection brewing, you are going to see great things happen.”

West High’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of Skelley, senior Damon Conzemius, sophomore Max Gerke and Brotherton is also seeded third.

The 400-yard freestyle relay unit of Gerke, Carter, Conzemius and Christensen is seeded ninth.

“We are all close, really close,” Christensen said. “We all know each other. We all know each other’s goal times. We all know what we can do and how we feel at all times. We are able to connect, not just in the water but mentally outside of the water. It is great that we can be able to connect like that and show it on the relays.”

Joining Brotherton and Christensen in multiple individual events are junior Lukas Swanson (200-yard freestyle, 500-yard freestyle) and seniors Andy Luo (100-yard butterfly, 100-yard backstroke), Boyd Skelley (seeded seventh in the 100 free, 17th in the 100-yard backstroke) and Nikolas Sung (200 IM, 100 breast).

Lastly, two sophomores have the opportunity to pile up some points in individual events for West.

Carter – another Liberty student – is seeded 10th in both the 100-yard butterfly and the 100 back. Distance swimmer Gerke – an Iowa City Regina transfer – is seeded 16th in the 200 free and 12th in the 500 free.

“We’re feeling pretty good,” Carter said. “I feel like we are going to take some names next week at state. It is going to be pretty fun.”

West emerged from the district meet ranked fourth in the QuikStats Iowa Power Index after holding the top spot entering districts.

“We are real confident,” Brotherton said. “We believe we have the most time dropped in the state across the board. A lot of us are not shaved, not fully tapered. We have got better suits to put on. It is going to be great all around.”

After a year’s absence, the boys’ swimming state meet returns to the University of Iowa pool at the CRWC, where West High won the team title two years ago.

For this collection of swimmers, many of whom have spent years in that pool with the Iowa Flyers Swim Club, the return is a welcome one.

“We’re excited,” Christensen said. “We all know the pool. We are all familiar with the pool. It is a fast pool. We’re excited to swim in it. Some of us have been swimming in there since we were like eight, nine, 10 years old. We are really familiar with it and excited to go crazy.”

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