The King’s Fork High School swim team ended its regular season with a tough loss to Hickory, but swimmers from the team enter the district championships with the knowledge that both the boys’ and girls’ squads set new school standards for wins this year.

For the 4-year-old swim program at KF, the girls’ team went 3-5, one more win than ever before, and the boy’s finished 2-6, also one win better than ever.

King’s Fork head coach Katherine Beodeker tried to arm her swimmers with a productive mindset going into the Jan. 19 meet against powerhouse Hickory, one that most knew would not yield a pretty score on the team level.

“The kids know it, so I try to encourage them to go for personal bests and race them rather than think about the team,” she said.

Beodeker saw progress this season for King’s Fork. She was particularly impressed with the initiative some swimmers showed.

“Some of them have taken it upon themselves to go to the Y and practice a little bit more,” Beodeker said.

She thought the extra effort showed in competition.

One swimmer Beodeker thinks could do well at districts and possibly move on to regionals is freshman Hugh Nezat in the 100-meter breaststroke.

“Against other teams, he’s actually fared pretty well, so I’m interested to see,” she said. “He’s been doing well.”

She also spotlighted senior Samantha Barbour as likely to make regionals in the 100-meter butterfly and perhaps the 200-meter individual medley. She also earmarked sophomore Hugh Long as someone who could do well in the 100-meter butterfly.

Senior Andres Escalante and juniors Tim Hairsine and Kyle Corbett could all make a particular event memorable for King’s Fork.

“The 200 freestyle should be interesting, because they’re all really close to each other in time,” Beodeker said. “I don’t know if they’ll make it to regionals, but one of them may have a shot, depending on what happens, because they’ve all improved their time a lot this year.”

The Southeastern district championships are set for next Saturday at Hampton University.