With the state competition happening on Friday and Saturday, the qualified swimmers on the boys swim team look to get an edge from a week of preparation.

Senior Zach Rogers, who committed to swim for Mizzou in October, is eyeing redemption in his last high school meet.

“Visualizing is as far as you can really get mentally,” Rogers said. “Last year I got fourth in both my events and this year i’m favorited in one of them, and seeded third in the other one so im pretty confident I can do well.”

As far as confidence goes, the swimmers are feeling good about the meet but are not letting it get to their head.

“I’m feeling pretty confident but there are some very fast kids at state,” junior Spencer Kraus said. “I’m just getting in the zone and going through the race in my head.”

Sophomore Connor Ripp has been relying on rest as well as endurance to get himself ready mentally and physically.

“I’m going to bed earlier than I normally do and I’m eating more carbs and healthy food,” Ripp said. “Were starting to taper at practice so were doing less yardage but higher workouts.”

Ripp is the only underclassman on the swim team to qualify for the state meet, and he’s hoping he can succeed for the team.

“Its pretty cool and exciting that i’m the youngest,” Ripp said. “The upperclassman mess with me a lot but it’s still a lot of fun because they’re dependant of me.”

Also competing at the state meet are seniors Natsu Gavin, Matthew Walter, Riley Brown, and junior Kirk Randolph. For Gavin, he is not treating his last meet any different.

“I’m not really treating it as something special because all the other meets were big too,” Gavin said. “I am kind of sad that it’s the last one but it’s nothing out of the ordinary.”

The state meet is taking place at the Rec Plex in St. Peters with preliminaries on Friday and finals and consolations on Saturday.