North Marion swimming looking to progress this season
Dec. 8—RACHEL — Every team strives for progress — to get better and faster at whatever it does.
North Marion's swim team solely focuses on progress.
"Just getting better," second-year coach Tony Lopez said. "My goal would be for at least my veteran swimmers to get better at the strokes that we're not great at, like butterfly. For my newcomers, to simply just finish races without getting disqualified."
The theme of getting better and progressing as swimmers showed up last season. Lopez said the team got better throughout the season last year, which is what he looks for in his team this year.
Despite this reality, only one member made it to states last season — then-junior Taylor Hess, her third year in a row qualifying for states. She competed in the 100 yard girls breaststroke but did not place.
This year, Hess enters her senior year as the only returner on a girls team comprised of three swimmers, too small to run relays. She's joined by first-year swimmers Maylie Bland and Reese Stewart.
The boys team sees four returners in seniors Jordan Cox, Samuel Findo, and Isaac Davis and junior George Fridley along with first-year swimmers Malachi Stewart, Cooper Hancock and Brady Carpenter.
While there is an equal number of returning and new swimmers, it creates a challenge to get the first-years to the same competitive level as the rest of the team.
"Adapting to the new swimmers," Cox said. "We have to reteach them everything and get them all adapted to how to swim."
Cox said every new member of the team didn't swim competitively before high school. He said no one swam in middle school and team members are fresh into the water and still need to learn the different strokes.
The size of the teams creates challenges as well. According to Hess, the girls not having a relay team and the small number of the boys team means there are fewer opportunities to score points during meets.
"Our girls team only has three girls, so we won't be able to have relays or score that many points," Hess said. "Same thing with the boys. They're relatively small, so it'll be hard for us to score points."
According to Lopez, he and co-coach Todd Goblinger face the challenge of keeping swimmers on the team.
Part of the challenge is that Lopez teaches middle school and doesn't see the team outside of practice very often. However, he is trying his best to get to know them, joining them in the pool at times. The other part is the precedent of swimmers leaving.
"If they're not feeling it, we have a tendency of kids who have been like 'I'm not doing it anymore,'" Lopez said. "So trying to get them engaged enough to get progression."
North Marion opened the swim season on Nov. 13 at Fairmont State for the Marion County Meet, competing against the swim teams of Fairmont Senior and East Fairmont.
The Huskies finished third with the girls and second with the boys. The boys won the 200 yard medley as a team, and individually the 100 freestyle and the 100 breaststroke. Hess won the girls 100 breaststroke.
"We scored points in several events where people were outside their comfort zones," Goblinger said. "In some of those cases they were the only swimmers in their events because they're not popular events. We were proud of them for putting in the effort and swimming in the events that other people didn't want to swim."
Reach Colin C. Rhodes at 304-367-2548
