The boys swim team made history this year for having the first ever diver qualify to compete at the state meet. Senior Brody Roost performed his dive Friday, Feb. 6 at the state meet at Waukesha South High School. Though he didn’t make the podium, Roost worked hard during the season and qualifying for state did not come as a surprise to him.

“I did expect to make state in both swim and dive because I usually make state in a swimming event and there were not many people in the meets that had dives better than me,” Roost said.

Now looking back at his performance, there are a few things that he wishes he could change. 

“In the first relay I was in, which was the 200-yard medley, Eric Olmen (sophomore from Green Lake) and I did not have the best exchange off the blocks,” Roost said. “For diving, I wish I had brought more stuff to put on to warm up between dives because the pool area was cold. I could not get warm which was bad for my dives because you want to be loose and relaxed for diving.”

Roost received lots of support going into the state meet, especially from his parents and the parents of his teammates.

“The fact that he has only been diving for two years is a great achievement.  Most of the other divers he competed against exclusively dive and have been training for a number of years,” father Brad Roost said.

Since it was Brody’s first time diving at the state level, he was very nervous as he prepared for his event. He prepped for his performance by drinking lots of water and eating bananas to prevent cramps.

“There were a lot of divers there that had been diving for much longer, and were a lot better than me. They did very impressive things and honestly what went through my head was ‘holy crap’,” Brody said.

Not only did Brody qualify in the diving category, but also in two relay events. He swam in the 200-yard freestyle relay and 200-yard medley relay along with his teammates, senior Wyatt Aton, junior Derek Zamzow (Green Lake) and sophomore Erik Olmen (Green Lake).

This was Brody’s last performance of his 12-year swimming career. His parents say that it will not be Brody’s last time swimming. 

“Brody knows swimming is a great life-long healthy activity.  I don’t think he’s done with it completely. I think he’ll always be a swimmer,” Brad said.

This accomplishment of being the first ever diver from Berlin to advance to state will be an inspiration to all future swimmers.

“We are proud of Brody’s hard work and talents in the pool. He has been a great representative of BHS and hopefully will inspire other students to potentially get involved with swimming/diving at Berlin High School,” Athletic Director Joe Stellmacher said.

The 200-yard medley relay placed 14th with a time of 1:44.74 scoring 6 points, and the 200-yard freestyle relay placed 13th with a total time of 1:32.97 scoring 8 points. In Roost’s dive he placed 16th with a dive of 247.85. As a team the boys placed 20th overall at the meet with a total of 21 points.