Shawnee Mission East’s boys swim and dive team are state champions.

The 18-person squad brought home first place at the 6A state championship on Saturday from the 6A state meet in Topeka.

Several swimmers broke school records at the state meet. Coach Wiley Wright said the team is reflecting on the gratifying weekend and all they accomplished.

Wright said 17 of the 18 swim and dive athletes scored one point or more, when normally about 12 out of 18 athletes score.

The win, he said, happened because “everyone contributed greatly.”

“We had three divers that placed in the top 12,” Wright said. “It was a true team effort, it took everybody — let’s put it that way.”

The team broke the following three school records, Wright said:

• Seniors James Schipfer, Brady Smith, Will Roberts and Bo Kimmel broke the school record set in 2006 for the 200-yard freestyle relay, with a time of 1:25:48.
• Schipfer set a new school record in the 100-yard backstroke preliminaries and came in third in this race. The last record was set in 2013, and the new record time is 52.05.
• Evan Deedy won the 100-yard breaststroke race, lowering the school’s record to 57.20 seconds. The last record was set in 2015.

Wright said the freestyle relay qualified the swimmers for All-American consideration, the results of which take the top 100 times from across the nation.

The swimmers will know if they made All-American in June, Wright said. It’s been about six years since SM East swimmers gained All-American recognition.

Seniors made up about half of the state championship winning team, Wright said. He’ll miss those seniors next season, but Wright said he knows younger swimmers will step up to the challenge.

“They laid a great foundation of what is needed and expected of the kids coming back,” Wright said. “They’ve seen it and they saw the fruits of their labor at the end, and they want to continue the success that the team had over the years.”