At the Shawnee Mission Invitational on Jan. 25, junior Dane Weninger helped the swim team break the school’s record in the 200 freestyle relay and individually broke the 200 freestyle record. Weninger said he looks forward to this particular meet every year and achieving this goal was rewarding.
“I know [this meet is] probably where I’ll get some of my best times and that’s a record that I’ve been looking to break for a while,” Weninger said. “It was great to look up [at] that time and see that I finally achieved the goal that I’d set for myself.”
After breaking the school’s record in the 500 freestyle last year on Jan. 20, Weninger said he had a desire to break that again as well as the 200 freestyle.
“I hope I can break my 500 freestyle record again because that is a time from last year, so I definitely [hope to] improve on that,” Weninger said. “I would [also] love to break that 200 freestyle again but, of course, I’m really happy that I already have that.”
Assistant swim coach Laura Mason said seeing hard-working athletes like Weninger get rewarded for their commitment and work ethic is amazing to see.
“Seeing someone like him who puts in the work every single day, is very dedicated, consistent and disciplined in his sport [is] really nice to see that pay off for kids like him,” Mason said.
Qualifying for State for the third time, Weninger said he is more confident this year than in previous years because he has two years of prior experience.
“[My] freshman and sophomore [year] was my first time swimming State in those respective pools and it was kind of scary and I didn’t know how well I was going to do,” Weninger said. “Having that experience under my belt, I am definitely ready to go this year.”
With State coming up on Feb. 20, Weninger said he is looking to achieve his goals before the end of the season.
“I am definitely [wanting to] have two podium finishes in my individual events for sure and then I’m going to help our relays do as best as we can,” Weninger said. “I think our 200 freestyle relay might have a chance at winning State.”
With Weninger’s experience and dedication to the sport, Mason said Weninger is always looking for a way to improve himself and has made a huge impact as a leader for the team.
“Dane is truly one of the hardest workers I have ever met in my entire life. He really puts in the practice, [doing] a really good job of pushing himself and having the coaches really work with him at practice to make sure that he is doing everything he can to drop his times,” Mason said. “He’s a really good leader; he trains year round for it and knows a lot of really good drills and things so he’s definitely a good leader on our team.”
For those looking to get into swimming, Weninger said it is a hard sport that takes time but there are opportunities to pursue the sport if interested.
“Swimming is definitely a time-consuming sport, it requires a lot of mental toughness to keep doing it,” Weninger said. “There’s a lot of summer league teams around here and if someone was looking to get into swimming, they could try it out [to] see if they like it.”
