Snowfall began to hit the ground on Tuesday night, serving as a reminder that with a change of seasons comes a new set of high school sports. Around the county, prep athletes who swim and dive head indoors for a brand new season.
With swim season kicks off, area coaches and teams weighed in on their upcoming season.
Lexington Minutemen
In Lexington, expectations are high. “I expect us to go out and be competitive in all our meets. We’re looking forward to the end of season and hoping to do well in our Conference meet in Wooster and to advance to the district and state competitions,” stated head coach Brock Spurling in reference to his 30-member swim team.
Although this is one of the smallest teams in the program’s recent history, Spurling said, “What we’re missing in depth, we make up with quality.”
He noted that all of the members have swimming experience, not to mention, two-thirds of the team are district qualifiers and one-third are state qualifiers.
“We’ve got a small freshmen class, so we’re really going to rely on our senior leadership,” he said. Leadership will come from Hannah Stevens and Hailee Sautter, both three-time state qualifiers, as well as Cory Strassell and Derek Sautter. “Cory competed in the state meet last year in two relays and so far he’s done a great job with leading us in weight room, dry land, and in the pool. And Derek was the highest placing male at the state meet last year; he took sixth place in the 100 fly, so we’re expecting big things from him,” said the coach.
The team boasts divers Evan Heth and Adam McCombs, who placed 13th and 18th at state last year, respectively.
The team’s strength of schedule keeps pace with talented team. Teams like Lima Shawnee, Sandusky Perkins, Ashland, Wooster, Madison, and Mansfield Senior loom large for the Minutemen.
“We swim a challenging schedule because we want to give our kids the most opportunities to swim against good competition.” Spurling explained and added, “Overall, everyone is going to present a challenge one way or another.”
Madison Rams
For the Rams swim team, the year will bring some welcomed changes. The girls squad will be full for the first time in Head Coach Matt Wade’s tenure.
“Hopefully that could help us out at OCCs in January, Wade said, “On the boys’ side, we really lack a lot of depth. At the same time, our boys get excited about competing with each other for best times. In all, we expect that if our kids work hard good things will happen,” said Wade.
As for strengths and weaknesses of the team, boys and girls squads have and inverse approach to the season. The boys team will not fill a full squad and will focus on individual events. The girls have a team focus. “If we are going to make a jump at OCCs on the girls’ side, it will take everyone in the lineup to get it done, no matter what event someone is in,” said Wade.
Madison returns 16 letter winners from last year, an even 8 boys and 8 girls. The team returns both district qualifiers in Colby Titus and Brooklyn Maurer. The coach also noted that he will look to his senior leadership. “We have a lot of incoming freshman that will be asked to swim events and do things they’ve never been asked to do before,” he said, “So far in the preseason, they’ve met every challenge we’ve given them and that will prove helpful through February this year. On the girls’ side, the addition of foreign exchange student Josephine Bundgaard will help us no matter what events we put her in,” said Wade.
Mansfield Christian
The Mansfield Christian swim team is made up of 14 competitors, an increase from recent years. “While we don’t have a huge team, we do have some very talented swimmers,” stated head coach Joanne Maiyer.
Maiyer noted senior Lynsey Myers and sophomore Addalyn Patrick who both qualified to the district swim meet the previous season. Myers advanced from the sectional meet in the 50 and 100 freestyle and Patrick in the 200 I.M. and 100 backstroke.
“I think they can very well qualify to districts again, and we’ve got a couple freshmen swimmers who are very strong,” said Maiyer.
Freshmen Abby Reynolds and Maggie Myers, younger sister of Lynsey Myers, show promise for the Flames.
In their quest for improvement, Flames will get plenty of time in the water. “We’re going to try to spend more time in the water and practice one more day in the week if possible.” Maiyer added, “It’s hard to find water time, since we don’t have a pool. We practice mostly at the Malabar pool and train with the St. Peter’s swim team, which is a very good swim team. We’re very fortunate to have them because the kids are swimming together, making them push each other.”
Mansfield Senior Tygers
Following long-time coach Frank Bartholow’s retirement, Steve Shoenfelt takes over for Mansfield Senior High swimming and with that change will bring challenges for the team.
“We are looking for a lot of individual growth, and a multitude of personal bests every time we hit the water,” said Shoenfelt, “The team is already making great strides and adapting to the new practice regimen, but they are also going to need to adjust to a whole new philosophy when it comes to competition. The nice thing is that this group of young people is extremely respectful, focused, sopping up all the technical information I can give them. “
The first year coach noted that he is looking for success as the team hit tournament and hopes for big drops in times at the end of the season.
The Tygers return two-time state qualifier Hutch Blackstone, a sprint freestyle and breaststroke specialist that Shoenfelt looks to the to put on the podium this year. The coach also has some new talent to supplement the squad.
“Also joining the team as a freshman phenom is Drew Weeks, a good all around swimmer who specializes in any distance of freestyle,” said Shoenfelt. “Cole Proffitt (sophomore) and Ethan Luedy (freshman) will start out the season providing us with some depth in the swimming events.”
“On the girl’s side, we have eight seniors, led by a trio of experienced swimmers who give us a great deal of flexibility for our lineups. Tobi Zeller (breast), Danni Boddy (back), and Sammie Lehman (fly) will lead the team with a lot of help from sophomore Grace Haring, who can swim any of the eight individual events,” said Shoenfelt.
Shoenfelt looks to opponents to help prepare his team to compete in a tougher schedule. The meet lineup features opponents Lexington, Ashland, Ontario and Galion’s boys.
“With all of the new swimmers on the team, basic skills are the main focus in order to compete with the more experienced teams in the area,” said Shoenfelt, “Our numbers are decent, but we don’t have a lot of quality depth to start the season.”
“The good thing is that it isn’t how you start that matters, it’s how you finish.”
Ontario Warriors
Newcomers to the NOL, Ontario Warriors are poised to have a promising season. Ontario coach Deb Henry stated, “Our boys are strong in every event and very deep in most. We also have a strong returning diver. Our boys need to work on practice sessions. There are many swimmers in the pool at once,” said Henry.
The Warriors also face little shortage of competition. Their season schedule will pit them against Colonel Crawford and Lexington and Galion as well as a tough matchup with Sandusky in a league meet. Lexington, Mansfield Senior, and Colonel Crawford would push the girl’s team.
The Warriors boy’s team returns three of last year’s four state qualifiers Both boys and girls have a large number of returning district qualifiers.
“Our girls are strong in the IM, breaststroke, fly, and most free events. We need to increase our numbers and stay healthy,” said Henry of the team’s season.
Shelby Whippets
The Shelby Whippets lost some key players to graduation, but there is a number of returning letter winners from last season. “Top prospects for this year include Nick McPherson in the fly and the distance freestyle events and Derek Ensman in the IM and breaststroke. Nick also comes with a lot of YMCA and summer league experience. Sophomore Noah John is a freestyle sprint specialist and Jonathan Davis in the distance events. Brothers Joe and Nate Emerson will be called upon early in the season to help fill in some of our holes in the line-up,” said head coach Louise Sommer.
“Rachel Baker has the experience in distance events and will be assuming duties in the backstroke event; while Baylie White has competition experience in the butterfly, IM, and freestyle sprint events. Rachel Ensman will be our replacement for Bailey Slone in the breaststroke and sophomore Macy Slone should be able to fill in for her big sister in the freestyle sprint events,” said Sommer.
The coach looks for the boys team to gain confidence in themselves early in the season. “With losing a total of eight boys to graduation, this group will have their work cut out for them this year. Teamwork will be a big factor in developing their relays this year,” said Sommer.
“The senior girls will have to come in with their “A” game. They will need to show their senior experiences will pay off for them,” said Sommer.
St. Peter’s Spartans
The St. Peter’s Spartans are entering the season with “a combination of experience and youth,” as Coach Tim Finnerty described. “Hopefully the young swimmers will pull through,” he added.
With his 24 swimmers, “It’s still hard to compete with teams like Ontario and Lexington and Mansfield Senior,” he stated.
Brothers Anthony and Thomas Schlitt are among the veteran swimmers who are forces to be reckoned with in the pool. Both swimmers are versatile and can swim any stroke and have the distinction of being district qualifiers. Another sibling pair, Kayli and Alana Ralph also qualified to districts.
Finnerty highlighted junior Olivia Haller, freshman Autumn Scodova, along with seniors, Noah Dillinger and Ryan Coleman, as other assets to the team.
