Two on the podium. Two relay teams breaking school records. Two first-time state qualifiers.
That’s how the Woodrow Wilson High School boys team ended their season at the UIL 5A Swimming and Diving State Meet in Austin.
For seniors Jack Berube, Grant Closson and Tyler Patterson, it wasn’t the first time competing at that level. Nor was it their first time racing together: All three were Piranhas at Lakewood Country Club.
But for freshman Landon Fike and senior Max Freele, it was the first time to qualify for the state meet.
“I was super excited to go,” says Freele, who attends Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and swims for Woodrow. “Leading up to it, I was super nervous, though, because state is state, and it felt like it was almost out of my league. But I think I did really well, and I’m kind of proud of what I did.”
No one left empty handed: Berube won third place in the 200 freestyle, and Closson won third in the 100 freestyle. Though the relay teams didn’t medal, both set school records. The 200 medley relay team, which finished sixth, included Berube, Closson, Fike and Patterson. Closson, Freele, Fike and Berube came in 12th in the 400 freestyle relay.
Individually, a few of the seniors are graduating as school record holders.
Berube holds the record in the 200 freestyle, 100 backstroke, 100 butterfly, 500 freestyle and 200 individual medley. Patterson holds the record in the 100 breaststroke, which he set last year. Closson holds the record in the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle.
The journey to state hasn’t just meant enduring daily morning practices, though the trips to Benny’s Bagels afterward for breakfast were a nice perk. Their success at the state meet is years in the making.
Both of Fike’s parents were student-athletes at the University of Texas at Austin. His dad, who still swims competitively, was Fike’s first coach.
“I started swimming when I was 3, and then my dad trained me three times a week for like an hour,” Fike says. “It wasn’t that hard, just kind of learning the strokes.”
Though he was competing with older athletes, the state meet wasn’t intimidating, he says, because of his experience swimming on club teams.
“It was fun, me and the seniors, but next year, I hope to go for an individual event,” he says. “Medal — I hope to medal next year, really.”
Patterson, whose dad was also on the swim team at UT, joined the Dallas Mustangs club team a few years after joining the summer league team. The first time he won a race was as a Piranha, where he was one of a few boys his age who could finish a 25 breaststroke. By the time he was 9 years old, he was swimming year-round.
Photography by Hunter Lacey.
Being on the swim team was one of the most exciting parts of attending Woodrow, he says, and his experience at state as a freshman was one of the best he’s had because of the camaraderie shared by the team. The feeling was relaxed because Woodrow wasn’t seeded as high.
“This year, we actually had a chance to do something. We were seeded pretty high. We wanted to do good,” Patterson says. “So it was a lot more competitive feeling this year, maybe more pressure as well, which I still thought was fun.”
Berube’s not the first competitive swimmer in his family. His dad, Ryan Berube, was on the team that won the gold medal in the 200 freestyle relay at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
He has been swimming at Woodrow since freshman year, but he only joined a club team last June. In middle school, he got hooked on water polo, and the plan was to join the team at the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the club swim team to become a stronger swimmer.
“I fell in love with the team and the guys on my club team and started to drop time very, very quickly, which resulted in the recruitment attention from a lot of different colleges,” Berube says. Next year, he’ll be swimming for the University of Virginia.
Closson also plans to continue swimming in college, at Georgetown University. He was “fairly competitive” in summer league as a kid, and his coaches encouraged him to join Dallas Mustangs.
This was his fourth year swimming on the high school team and his fourth year attending the state competition.
As a freshman, his focus was taking in the experience. But after that, when Woodrow was moved to a more competitive region, Closson says he and his teammates had to get serious about getting faster. Closson has seen the team improve over time, and swimming with the Wildcats has been an enjoyable experience for him.
“It’s the sport boiled down to its most fun, where it’s not about times or the long run,” he says. “It’s focusing on the dual meet that’s maybe a week out and just racing and working together with the team.”
Freele didn’t start swimming at Woodrow until his sophomore year. He was on the water polo team in ninth grade for a few weeks, but he knew that wasn’t for him, so the next year, he joined the swim team. But his love for the sport began at the Tietze Park pool, where he went to spend more time with his friends outside of school.
Earlier in his senior season, Freele was an alternate for the 400 freestyle relay. His personal record at the regional meet was fast enough to secure a spot on the team headed to state.
“Woodrow is super team-oriented, even for an individual sport. There’s no ‘I’ in ‘team,’” Freele says. “Everybody’s together, supporting each other, making each other laugh, encouraging each other to come to practice. It’s stuff like that that really makes me love the team.”
