Michigan recruit Jaeddan Gamilla leaves mark at Metea Valley. But it’s more than just state medals. ‘Inspire them.’

After completing the final race of his high school career, Metea Valley senior Jaeddan Gamilla climbed out of the pool and hugged his coaches.

It was an emotional close to one chapter of Gamilla’s swimming career and the end of an era for the Aurora school.

“That was the first thing that I thought — that it was my last race,” Gamilla said. “I hugged my coaches. They brought me here, so the least I can do is show them gratitude.”

There was gratitude going both ways Saturday at the boys swimming state meet at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont because Gamilla is the youngest of four brothers to swim for the program.

The Michigan recruit is the best of the bunch, too, as he leaves with four individual state medals, placing him third on the program’s all-time list.

“He’s a tough competitor,” Metea Valley coach Mark Jager said. “He did a great job for us.

“He’ll move on and get some real specific training, and I think he will continue to improve over the years.”

That’s something Gamilla has done ever since following older brothers Jarrell, Janssen and Jeddrick into the sport — and eventually Metea’s program.

This was the 11th — and final — season with at least one Gamilla on the roster.

“They’ve always been a solid part of our foundation and have kind of blazed the way for a lot of our other swimmers,” Jager said. “We’ve had many successful in our short existence, but they’ve always been a staple of it.

“I appreciate all of their dedication and hard work over the years.”

Gamilla remembers first watching his brothers swim when he was 4.

“One of our neighbors invited my oldest brother to join a summer swim team,” Gamilla said. “That’s how we got to swimming.”

Jarrell, the oldest, graduated in 2016 and did club swimming at Loyola. Janssen was the first brother to win a state medal, swimming on the 10th-place 200 medley relay in 2017 and then taking ninth in the 100 butterfly as a senior in 2018.

Jeddrick, a 2021 graduate, followed with a ninth-place medal in the 100 breast stroke in 2020. Janssen and Jedrick both went on to swim at Saint Louis.

The brothers also are high achievers academically. Jarrell went into biomedical engineering, Janssen is a computer engineer and Jeddrick is majoring in aerospace engineering.

“They’re really great role models to me,” said Gamilla, who plans to study computer engineering. “Whenever I had stuff to ask, they would answer and were super helpful.

“I’m super grateful for them. I wanted to follow in their steps.”

Gamilla did that and then some. Last season, he took fourth in the 200 individual medley and third in the backstroke.

He was hoping to win a state title this season, but failed to qualify for the championship heat in the 200 IM during Friday’s prelims, although he returned to qualify in fourth place in the breaststroke.

“He had a disappointing first swim,” Jager said. “I think he was swimming a little bit tight but relaxed coming back for his second swim yesterday, and then was obviously a lot more relaxed today and it showed.”

Indeed, Gamilla won the consolation heat of the 200 IM, taking seventh in 1:49.92, a time that was faster than four of the six swimmers in the championship heat. He capped his day by taking third in the 100 breaststroke in 55.16.

“Winning was the main goal, but you can’t really control what other people are doing,” Gamilla said. “I learned that this past year.

“I take a lot of pride in the way I handled things this weekend. It was a lot harder than last year, but looking back, I’m glad I came back the way I did.”

Gamilla also is glad about his family legacy.

“My main goal this year was to show these underclassmen what swimming is all about,” Gamilla said. “I wanted to show them is where hard work and dedication got me to.

“It was pretty evident they all looked up to me. I wanted to show support and inspire them because that’s what the family taught me.”

Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.