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Spanish Fork swimmer Kaleb Felund swims the butterfly during the first day of 5A swimming at the Richards Building in Provo on Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. (Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald)

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Payson swimmer Kaylee Pikus swims the freestyle during the first day of 5A swimming at the Richards Building in Provo on Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. (Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald)

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Springville swimmer Ellie Boyer swims the butterfly during the first day of 5A swimming at the Richards Building in Provo on Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. (Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald)

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Swimmers dive into the pool during the first day of 5A swimming at the Richards Building in Provo on Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. (Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald)

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Timpview head coach Jefferson McClain talks to one of his swimmers during the first day of 5A swimming at the Richards Building in Provo on Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. (Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald)

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As Spanish Fork senior swimmer Kaleb Feland took a minute to look back on his high school career after the first day of the 5A state meet at the Richards Building in Provo on Friday, he realized there had been a lot of highs and lows.

“It’s been a long, long ride with a lot of ups and downs,” Feland said. “It’s been fun. I love connecting with all the guys. I’m sad I’m a senior. I could do this for a few more years.”

He showed his tremendous talent early in his Don career but discovered that it’s not easy to continue to succeed.

“It’s hard seeing all of your friends who you used to be faster than pass you in height and speed,” Feland said. “The training season is all year round, nonstop. It’s hard putting in months and months of work without seeing the drops that you want. You have to stay in it mentally and go have fun. You just do the best you can do.”

In addition to the exhausting training regimen, Feland also had to deal with the challenge of having the Spanish Fork pool get taken out when the school put in a new football field.

“Water space is definitely a problem in Utah,” Feland said. “You have a lot of pools but they aren’t all that great. With how fast kids are going without proper training places, it goes to show that if Utah was able to put in some nice pools we could be so much faster.”

And, of course, there was the pandemic.

“COVID-19 wasn’t much of a help,” Feland said.

Now he is getting ready to get in the pool for the final time as a Don as he will compete in Saturday’s 5A finals in the individual medley, the 100-yard butterfly and two relays (the medley and the 400).

“Hopefully I’ll be a lot faster in the IM (individual medley) and in the fly,” Feland said. “I’m going to go out and have fun in my last meet in high school. I’ve just got to take advantage of it.”

He said his advice to young swimmers would be to find their passion for the sport.

“You have to find your reason why you swim and then swim every day for that reason,” Feland said. “If you are swimming just to go fast, sure, that’s great — but you have to love this sport if you are going to stay in it. It’s a hard sport.”

While Feland enjoyed some solid performances in the first day of action, no one had an individual moment like Wasatch senior Jayden Hicken.

He went out hard in the 100-yard breaststroke, finished his four laps and looked up at the board — to see a time of 55.29 seconds. That broke the high school state record, which used to be 55.60.

“I was kind of confused initially,” Hicken said. “I didn’t know if I had beat it or not. It felt good to get it, like all my work payed off.”

He said it was rewarding to be able to hit that mark in his final meet.

“I knew it was going to be better because I was swimming well,” Hicken said. “It was really big. I’ve been working all year for this.”

Don’t be surprised, however, if he goes even lower in the finals on Saturday.

“I’m going to go for it,” Hicken said. “The last 25 was pretty hard, so I feel like I can go faster.”

The finals of the 5A and 6A state swimming meets will take place at the Richards Building in Provo on Saturday. The 6A competition begins at 9 a.m. with the 5A meet starting at 4 p.m.