Following a season in which the team had just nine swimmers, it would have been easy for Tyler Finkle or Christopher Schumann, or any of the seniors, to not care much about this season. But that’s not how things are with the Barnegat swim teams.

“It’s been a lot of hard work, a lot of sweat in that pool,” Schumann said after the Bengals’ 103-67 loss to Wall Township in the squad’s regular season finale on Jan. 30. “Throughout my career, it’s just been about keeping your head down and swimming.