Wu helps Subiaco Academy Trojans’ boys swim team make history

SUBIACO — Faith, scholarship, character and brotherhood. Those are the four pillars of Subiaco Academy that students use to guide them to greatness. Senior swimmer Daniel Wu leaned on just the one needed to make school history.

Wu, the River Valley Democrat-Gazette Boys Swimmer of the Year, as a team captain helped lead the way for the Trojans to win their first ever boys state title in swimming. Wu, his brother Samuel, Garreth Scheffe and Gus George combined for a time of 3 minutes, 55.77 seconds in the 400 free relay in the 4A-1A state meet. It was good enough for first and set the school record as well.

“Being a senior at Subiaco Academy, it hits a little bit more home than being a senior somewhere else,” Wu said. “One of our four pillars at our academy is brotherhood. Out of the four, brotherhood is something I cherish dearly. A team is built on brotherhood. Once we finally made that goal to make history and set it on the table, we knew we were going to do this. We felt nothing could stop us. We were really going to go for it as hard as we could.”

Wu swam the first leg of the relay and had the best seat in the house to witness the record-setting achievement.

“I got to see each one of them get out of the pool because I was the first one,” Wu said. “I had a really good view of the effort it took. I just couldn’t stop smiling. That was just a feeling I was never going to feel again but in that moment. Going into the race, we knew we had never won a state championship before. We got together as a team and wanted to finally do it. We wanted that to be our day. It was the perfect opportunity for us. After we won, it was kind of a relief. This is something I have wanted for a while. I made a list of goals before the year. This was on it and we did it.”

With his brother Samuel, a sophomore, on the team, that made winning the state title all that much more special to Wu. Samuel during the meet also won the 200 freestyle event with a personal-record time of 1:56.96.

“He is fast,” Wu said. “He is way faster than I ever was as a sophomore. There’s no telling what he can accomplish. It was awesome to achieve so much with him. I think he has a chance to win some more state titles without me now. I’ll be rooting for him. I’m so proud of him. He is going to do great things.”

It was a dream season for Wu, an Arkansas native from Dardanelle that closed out his stellar career with all-state honors. At the 4A-1A conference meet, he finished first in the 100 backstroke and was a part of winning relay teams in the 400 freestyle and the 200 medley. He also finished second in the 200 medley.

Leadership was a big role for Wu on the swimming team. With guidance from his brother, Wu helped the team out all year to make sure they were sharp with planning and scheduling.

“I loved the grind of practice every day,” Wu said. “We had a coach, but they leaned on me and Samuel to help make the practice schedule for the team. It’s a grind to do the practice that you made up with the other guys. We joked all the time about practicing too much when we ourselves set the schedule. Swimming is a year-round sport. You have to be mentally tough. Swimming is something I’ll do for the rest of my life, and Subiaco Academy will always be home.”