As current senior Alec Leven approached the block at the 2016 IHSA Boys Swimming and Diving Sectionals last season, he was wary of how much his recent practices would benefit this race. During the last few weeks of his junior season, Leven completed the taper process, where he did significantly less work to rest for the race. Leven’s taper paid off, dropping his time by nearly 10 seconds and earning him sixth place in the 500-yard freestyle at sectionals.

According to Kirk Ziemke, boys swimming head coach, Leven’s coaches had always advised him to commit himself to the taper, a process in which swimmers do less intense training to relax their muscles. But, it was not until his junior year that Leven finally learned to trust the taper.

Ziemke said Leven had a hard time accepting the taper because Leven feels most comfortable in high-intensity practice situations.

Leven said he looks forward to difficult practices because he enjoys the opportunity to push himself and see how many “reps” he can do.

“I can’t just drop and do nothing because then I’ll feel out of shape,” said Leven. “I think I thrive more on a lot of work.”

Sophomore Fabian Jujescu said he envies Leven’s drive to improve.

“He trains really hard with the distance group,” said Jujescu. “He does a lot of [swimming] yardage every day.”

Leven, the only senior on his team, is a four-year varsity swimmer. Although many things have changed for him since his freshman year — teammates, workouts, competitions, even coaches — Leven said one aspect has remained constant throughout his swimming experience: the encouraging spirit he feels from the team.

In its first three meets of the 2016-2017 season, Glenbrook North fell 121-50 to Lyons, 129-54 to Glenbrook South and 117-62 to New Trier, three of the top-ranked teams in the state, which Leven said had no effect on the morale of the team.

Jujescu, a second-year varsity swimmer, said Leven has moments in which he successfully elevates team spirit.

“During practice, he gets down to work, but when we have a couple minutes to crack some jokes he says some really funny things,” Jujescu said.

Ziemke said although Leven is not usually a vocal leader at practice, his hard work ethic and self-discipline during tough practices set an example for Leven’s younger teammates.

Leven said he believes that his teammates have the same hard-working mindset as he does.

“If I show myself pushing through it when things are impossible, then I hope they follow that and carry the same work ethic,” Leven said.