When you think about swimming, you think about a solitary athlete wind-milling their arms and kicking their legs as fast as possible in an effort to clock their personal best time.

Sounds a lot like an individual sport, doesn’t it?

But that’s not exactly the case this time of year at Todd Beamer High School. The Titans’ swim team is not taking that individualistic attitude into next weekend’s Class 4A State Swimming and Diving Championships inside the King County Aquatics Center.

The Titans have already snared the South Puget Sound League South Division championship with the program’s first-ever unbeaten season, rolled to the SPSL Meet team title and added the prestigious West Central District crown last week.

The only thing left is standing on top of the podium after winning Beamer’s first-ever team state title. And the Titans won’t be able to accomplish that goal without racking up points during the three relay races — something that has been the backbone of Beamer’s success this season. In the postseason, relay victories earn teams double the points of individual events.

“Our goal is to win state as a team and, in order to do that, it’s essential to do well in the relays,” said senior Cole Um, who will swim next year at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

The Titans will enter the Class 4A Swimming and Diving Championships with the best time this season in the 400-yard freestyle relay and the second-best times in the 200 medley and 200 free relays. The state meet kicks off Friday at the Aquatics Center with preliminary races starting at 9:45 a.m. The finals will commence at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 19.

“We have guys that can do every single stroke pretty well,” head coach Sue Bergman said. “So I have to play with the numbers and make the kids happy.”

The Titans were beyond happy during the West Central District Meet last week. Beamer blasted the field to win the team title by 41 points over second-place Kentridge, in large part, because of its three relays. The Titans won both the 200 medley relay and 400 free relay and finished second in the 200 free relay. Those three finishes alone, gave Beamer 114 of its 193 team points.

“We know the relays are where we get the most points,” said junior freestyler Dylan Chase, who swims on the medley and 400 free relays. “Those are the reason why we win. Without the relays, we wouldn’t win all the things we do. It’s just four different people exerting all of their energy. We work on our starts, because a half a second can mean the difference from winning and losing. I’ve seen people win by one one-hundreth of a second.”

The Titans hope to keep this season’s winning tradition going at state and if all the numbers play out, Beamer and Kamiak seem to be headed for a head-to-head battle for the 4A title.

Kamiak features a very deep lineup and, like Beamer, are also solid in the three relays. Kamiak’s preliminary swims have them ranked first in the 200 medley relay, right in front of the Titans, second in the 400 free relay behind Beamer and fourth in the 200 free relay. The Titans enter state with the second-best 200 free relay time.

“I have been playing with the numbers,” said Bergman. “And it looks like it’s going to be close. But we seem to swim our best at the big meets. These kids really perform to the level of the meet we are at and it doesn’t get bigger than state.”

Beamer finished in fourth place in the team standings during last year’s state meet. Shorewood won the state title with 194 points.

“Most of our team has been swimming with each other for many years,” said Um. “We know each others strengths and weaknesses. We just want to win state. That has been our goal from the very beginning.”

The Titans’ 400 free relay might be the most dominant of the three. The team of Jade Feigert, Bart Wanot, Cole Um and Matt Um blasted the West Central District field by more than six seconds with a state-best time of 3:15.94.

“They knew the stakes were high and wanted to see how fast they could go,” Bergman said. “And to watch them win by six seconds was pretty amazing. The depth they have is really cool. The crowd was going crazy. And they have more in them. They do work hard and stay focused on the goal. They know what they need to do to maintain the high standards.”

The 200 medley relay consists of Matt Um, Wanot, Chase and Cole Um and the 200 free relay team is made up of Chase, Costner McKenzie, Fiegert and Blake Jordan.

Relays aside, the Titans are also counting on getting big individual points from senior Bart Wanot.

The 6-foot-2 Wanot has developed into one of the best all-around swimmers in the state. He won a state championship last season in the 100 backstroke in a near-state-record time and also finished second in the 50 free.

This year, Wanot will swim in the 200 free and 100 butterfly and he enters the meet as the favorite in both. Wanot has a state-best time of 1:43.93 in the 200 free and a state-best time of 51.29 in the butterfly.

“The backstroke is his specialty,” Bergman said. “But this year his fly is looking good. This gives him a way to show off his versatility. Bart has more in him and he performs to the level of the meet we are at.”

Bergman rates Wanot in the talent class of former Beamer swimmer Jon Hiett, who won a pair of state championships and went on to swim at Auburn University.

Wanot, who trains approximately 25 hours a week in the pool, is still undecided on where he will swim next year in college. He currently has cut his list down to the University of Michigan, the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and Arizona State and will decide between the three in April, he said.

“This has been a really long season and it’s nice to finally go to state,” said Wanot, who concentrated on swimming with his club team, King Aquatic, during his first two years of high school. This is going to be a big one. We have never been this close to taking the trophy.

“This is the year it needs to happen.”