In recent years, De Soto High School has found itself becoming more prevalent in sports competing at the State level, and the boys’ swim team is no exception.

Junior Miles Arnold and sophomore Jarod Blazo both made it to State in individual events, along with several relays.

“It was really nice to find out that our relay was going to State again. Last year when we went to State, it was really fun. Just the experience going is really nice,” sophomore Cameron Webb said.

Qualifying for State is always exciting for athletes, but for Blazo it was no surprise.

“I pretty much knew I was going to qualify because of the way my times had been advancing. Just to have that and finally get there, that was really nice,” Blazo said.

Blazo qualified for State in the 100-yard backstroke and the 200-yard freestyle. He also made state consideration for the 200-yard individual medley (IM).

State was very exciting for the whole team this year, especially for Blazo.

Blazo placed 15th in his first 200 free race, meaning that he made it to finals, or then was able to swim in another race with the top 16 swimmers at the meet.

“We knew that in order to make finals, I was going to have to cut off about two seconds. So, I wasn’t really expecting to make [it]. Obviously, I hoped I would make it, but I would have been happy if I just got a second off,” Blazo said. “I was at 2:01 and if I had just gotten down to 2:00 I would have been happy. Then, I came out and I got a 1:59 … So I checked with my coach and then the results came out. When I found out I was going to finals, that was probably the best part [of the meet].”

Blazo placed 16th in the finals.

For Arnold, qualifying for State was slightly more frustrating.

“When I swam the 100 free [at a regular season meet], I swam a 54:15. It just irritated me because it was 1/100 of a second off of State … I should have gotten that 1/100,” Arnold said.

Although Arnold did not qualify in the 100-yard freestyle, he did go to state for the 500-yard freestyle and the 200-yard freestyle.

The team agreed State was different from any other meet they had been to.

“It’s a lot different from other meets because the facility is a lot nicer and a lot bigger. You’ve got not only the pool with eight lanes instead of six, you also have a warm-up pool which is huge, and then you have stands that dominate one side of the wall,” Blazo said.

The boys are proud of how they did at state and are all looking forward to the 2015-16 season.

Blazo is already “hoping next year I’ll be able to medal at State.”