It was a regular season dual meet and the Packers were dominating Faribault in Bud Higgins Pool Tuesday night.

Austin had the meet put away, but the Packers weren’t exactly disinterested or bored. They were too busy cheering each other on and supporting each other, even in the JV races. That’s the kind of season it’s been for the Packers, who are ranked No. 4 in the latest Class A coaches poll, as the group has pushed each other and praised each other in the pool since captain’s practices began in October.

“We’re a close knit group,” Austin freshman Isaac Christopherson said. “We’re all friends here.”

Austin took a big step last season as the squad broke a few school records and got on the podium in a few events at the Class A state meet, and the team is driven to do even better this season. The Packers have their eyes on setting several school records this year and they’re hoping to finish even stronger when the state meet rolls around in March.

No. 1 ranked St. Thomas Academy is the perennial power in boys swimming in Minnesota, but the Packers are happy to be recognized with the elite teams in the state.

“We’ve put in a lot of effort the past few years and everyone’s put in a lot of work to get to this point,” Austin senior Sawyer Myers said. “It feels good that our hard work is paying off. It’s fun to be the public school that gets good, because private schools are always good and they can kind of recruit.”

Austin has yet to set any school records this year, but it is likely the Packers will start making history once the team starts training more for speed instead of endurance. Austin junior Craig Heimark, who broke the AHS 100-yard freestyle record last season, was just three-tenths of a second from the AHS 50-yard freestyle record Tuesday night.

“I’m getting greedy. I want the 100, the 200 and the 50. I’ve still got to get Nick Brehmer’s record in the 200,” Heimark said. “We’ve had a lot more fun [this year]. Not that the other years haven’t been fun, but this year’s been better because we’re all in a little bit better shape and we’re expecting higher goals already.”

Myers and Christopherson are both a threat to break the 500-yard freestyle record and the Packers are hoping to re-set the two relay records they broke last season. The Packers have been impressive in their dual meets this season, but the real work has taken place in practice.

They started the year out with 6,000-yard days and the team has learned to push each other every day.

“Coach Gulbrandson’s practices start off real hard,” said junior Ben Walker. “It’s a lot different than meets, because we’re still in the endurance part of practice and we’re not working on speed yet.”

Clasen said he works hard against Walker in the butterfly in practice and everybody’s looking to keep up with Myers when the team swims together.

“Normally Sawyer’s leading the pack and we’re all just trying to keep up with him,” Clasen said. “We’ve been competing with ourselves. We push each other to get better.”

Myers said the team is in so much better shape this year that the Packers are able to practice harder and still enjoy it.

“Practices are tougher than we’ve had before, but we’re in better shape so we have more energy and there’s a lot of laughing and having fun while we’re working hard,” Myers said. “We’ve seen a lot of improvement already that we weren’t really expecting at the beginning of the year. When you work hard in practice, you work that much harder during the race.”

While swimming for 6,000 yards after a day of school may not sound like the most fun thing for every AHS student, Heimark simply relishes the thought of getting back in the pool. In fact, it carries him through the day.

“I like swimming and that’s kind of my motivation to get through school because I know that after school I get to go swim and relieve the stress of the day and see all my friends again,” Heimark said.

The Packers will host Red Wing Jan. 22 at 6 p.m.