POULSBO – As the new guys start to come around, the team has started to buckle down and the North Kitsap Vikings are diving in with substantial individual times, despite a 0-3 team start.

But in terms of togetherness and team support, this year’s squad is one of the better teams coach Greg Braun has seen. Encouragement between teammates is at an all-time high.

At the Dec. 15 meet against Shelton, the Vikes turned in a slew of personal bests across the board, but the Highclimbers took the meet by a count of 101-77.

All three NK 200 meter freestylers turned in personal-best times; Krister Seaberg — in his first 200M freestyle appearance of the year — finished second in 2:18.79, good enough to qualify for districts.

Josh Jones — one of a few Vikes battling shoulder injuries — qualified in his first appearance this year. In the 50M freestyle, he darted to a second-place finish in 25.71 behind Shelton’s Dext Cochran.

Seaberg and Kyle Rencher finished one-two, respectively, in the 100M fly. Seaberg swam a 1:08.22 while Rencher in his first fly appearance finished in 1:10.99, beating the nearest Highclimber by almost 20 seconds.

Rencher has been a nice surprise this year as he is proving to be a versatile threat, Braun said. In his first year with the team, the senior has already qualified in three events — the 50M and 100M frees as well as the 100M fly which he tackled against Shelton Dec. 15.

He was also a part of NK’s 200M freestyle relay team which swam its best time of the year at the Shelton meet as it continues to seek the perfect combination. Rencher combined with Seaberg, Jones and Brian Parrott for a 1:46 first-place time, topping Shelton by nearly five seconds.

Jeff Reeves, who hit the 200M IM qualifying mark early in the meet, bettered his time in the 100M backstroke by almost two seconds. He, Ryan Eggers and Robby Slattery finished one-two-three in the event with three qualifying times for NK.

“One of the things I see is they are real supportive of each other,” Braun said, adding though there are usually just a few kids encouraging their teammates, this year, it is most of the squad. “We have a lot of raw talent that have potential to go faster.”

Faster times will come with encouragement and harder work. The Vikes are slated to swim as much as possible over the break, Braun said. And even after the break, he plans to keep pushing in order to reach the peak at the end of the season.

North will be faced with two meets per week in the new year, but that doesn’t mean practice will slow down.

“If we do that, when the championships come around, they won’t have that base of endurance and stamina,” Braun said. “Given that’s our scenario, we’ll have to sacrifice some dual times for end of the season times.”