With a nerve-racking and demanding schedule behind them, seniors Evan Barta, Marvin Gimbel and Jake Prodoehl have had time to reflect.

            “It is hard to pick one memory from the whole season. As a whole, I will never forget a single day of this season. It has been filled with so many great times, great friends, and great teammates, and not to mention great stories that will never be forgotten,” Prodoehl says.

            Even the Arrowhead swimmers know how to get a few laughs and play a few pranks on one another; it doesn’t stop them from breaking new records.

 “I would say Operation: Applesauce was one of my favorites,” Prodoehl says.” We love to play pranks on each other and Adam Halmy (a sophomore) and I came up with a great practical joke. We put applesauce in the team conditioner and started eating it one day… everyone thought we were eating the conditioner and people freaked out. I guess you had to be there, but I was laughing so hard I literally started crying. Everyone’s reaction was priceless.”

Practices were hard and many seniors remember practicing until they were sick, but Barta says they still had a blast everyday and everyone had each other’s backs. It is when a team develops trust and confidence in each other that you see miracles happen, Barta says. And that’s the difference between being on a team and being a part of a team.

Barta says, “My favorite memory is when we were coming home from a dual meet against Brookfield. We took their team mascot and were taking suggestive pictures with it on the bus. We ended up posting these pictures on Facebook and a swimmer from Brookfield’s team saw them and demanded their mascot back. It was probably the best bus ride home.”

Gimbel, a foreign exchange student from Germany, said, “My best memories were the times I spent with Patrick Sievert, another swimmer. He would always get frustrated with us because we refused to keep swimming and we would always stop at the end of the lane and goof off. If it weren’t for Patrick I wouldn’t have swam as much as I did.”