The 2025 swimming and diving Heartland Athletic Conference took place in Fremont, Nebraska, from Friday, February 13 through Saturday, February 15, where the Lincoln East girls and boys swim and dive team paved their way to victory. Both the Lincoln East girls and boy Spartans swam hard to secure their third consecutive conference win.
This past year, the Spartans saw some drastic change in coaching, making fellow swimmers and parents concerned for the season. Despite these worries, new coaches Gabby Hall and Randy Harris have helped lead the Spartans to another Conference title, keeping the tradition of excellence at Lincoln East alive.
“As a new head coach, my goal for the team was to emphasize the swimmers working hard and to continuously stay positive,” Lincoln East Swim head coach Gabby Hall said. “Moving forward with this team, I hope to build up this success and continue it so hopefully, we can win HAC again and place higher than ever before at State”.
The performance the Spartans exemplified was one of domination. The Lincoln East girls scored 515 total points, with Lincoln Southwest coming in second place with 366 points. For the boys, Lincoln East scored a total of 570 points, while their closest competitor was Norfolk who scored 274 points. Another notable mention from this meet was that all 39 Spartan swimmers made it past the preliminaries on day one, and qualified for finals on February 15 by placing in the top 16. In addition, the divers competed the day before, on February 13, putting Lincoln East at an advantage before swimming started, demonstrating that the amount of depth helped secure a strong win for the Spartans.
Not only did the entire team have an outstanding meet, but a few races in particular stood out, including the girls 200-yard freestyle relay which broke the Lincoln East school record and took first place at HAC, with a time of 1:37.47. The members of this relay consisted of Kate Ost, Maggie Kontras, Kayla Wischhof, and Avari Wischhof.
“It felt so good to accomplish this achievement,” Lincoln East junior and member of the relay team, Kate Ost, said. “It was definitely rewarding, especially since all of our hard work has finally paid off, and knowing that we aren’t really rested right now and we are performing this well, is exciting because we know we’re going to do that much better at State.”
On the other side, the Lincoln East boys have had a season full of greatness, including four school records being broken, three of which took place at HAC. These races consisted of the boys 200-yard medley relay with members Eje Kim, Carson Agnew, Reid Frederick, and Mason Kassebaum, senior Jadeon Carter broke the boys 200-yard Individual Medley record, sophomore Eje Kim became the boys’ 100-yard back record holder earlier this season, and lastly senior Carson Agnew is now the school record holder in the 100-yard breaststroke. All of these swimmers were also individual HAC champions, majorly contributing to the Spartans’ win.
“It really felt surreal and just the best reward for all of my hard work this year,” Kim said. “The journey was worth it. Although it felt great to win, I hold precious the moments before the win where my friends and I had fun very tightly, as my friends and also my coaches have continued to challenge me and have made me the swimmer I am.”
Although the Spartans have achieved one of their main goals this season, conference champions, their season is not yet finished with the most challenging step ahead: Nebraska State Swim and Dive. This will be the true test of the Lincoln East Spartans, where they hope to continue their success and win a title.
