Water Wonders / Boys swimmers set to hit the pool for competition – The Republic

Most of the area girls swimming teams kicked off their seasons in the past week-and-a-half. Tonight, the boys season gets under way for local teams when Columbus Norths boys and girls host Franklin in a dual meet.

Here is a look at the area boys teams heading into the 2019-20 season:

Columbus North

The Bull Frogs made a big jump last season when they won Conference Indiana and sectional titles and finished 17th in the state.

Story continues below gallery

We want to again win the sectional championship and place even higher at the state championship meet and chase the best performance weve had yet, North coach Logan Schaefer said. Theyre working on finding their identity, finding their roles. But they have their sights on performing even better at the state championship than they did last year.

Junior Christopher Lee is the only Bull Frog remaining from last years state qualifiers. Lee finished 26th in the 100-yard backstroke and 30th in the 50 freestyle and swam on the eighth-place 200 freestyle relay and 10th-place 200 medley relay teams.

Lee has assumed the leadership role for this years team.

He has wanted to step into that role as soon as he left the pool deck last year at the state championships, Schaefer said. He wants to help the team take a step in the direction toward being the best in the state, and hes working as hard as he can to do that.

Sophomore David Fry in the 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke, junior Tristen Cook in the 100 butterfly and 50 freestyle and sophomore Matthew Goble and junior Aidan McAlister in the distance freestyle events also are among the top returners for North.

The Bull Frogs also have added a promising freshman in Daniel Utterback, who swims the sprint freestyle events and 100 butterfly.

Columbus East

The Olympians have only eight returning swimmers and divers but have nine newcomers.

The top returners are junior Chad Kelly in sprint freestyle events, senior Justin Borowski in the distance freestyle events and sophomore Branson Young, who can swim several different events.

East also returns senior Colby Hertle in the sprint freestyle events, senior Bryce Eckelman in backstroke and freestyle relays, junior Mason Curry in the distance freestyle and 200 individual medley and senior David Neville in a variety of events, along with junior diver John Roberts.

German exchange student Fabio Nihalan leads the group of newcomers. That list also includes senior Ryan Smith; sophomores Martin Cox, Igor Fonseca, Isaac Jiminez and Dathan Wolf and freshmen Henrique Charvacho, Rylan Perkins and Mark Mathis.

They have come further in the last week-and-a-half than most new swimmers do in a half year, East coach David Fribley said. Theyre already doing the varsity workout. Its going to be interesting how these kids do because the work ethic is there. They really go after it. Obviously, were going to need them the whole year just to fill out holes and slots, but by the end of the year, theyre going to be good.

Jennings County

The Panthers have a new coach in 2016 Jennings County and 2019 Indiana State graduate Gretchen Sherrill. Sherrill, who swam for the Panthers, has only six swimmers and one diver.

Junior Danny Hoffman is the lone returning swimmer. He competes in a a variety of events, including the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke.

The rest of the swimmers are freshmen, led by Jonathan Jones.

We are looking for growth at sectional for their individual events, Sherrill said. Some of them have individual goals that they want to meet at the sectional meet, and thats kind of our goal for the season.

Trinity Lutheran

The Cougars will have two swimmers this year.

Junior Ethan Myers is the lone returner. He is joined by sophomore Nicholas Foster, who is new to the school.

With Nicholas, well focus primarily in the freestyle this season and then look to maybe expand his swimming strokes next year, Trinity coach Doug Sabotin said. Ethan is a great all-around swimmer, so well look for him to do individual medley, back, breast, fly and of course freestyle.

If you go

The 2019-2020 boys swimming schedules for Columbus East and Columbus North:

Columbus East

Dec. 5;at Shelbyville;6 p.m.

Dec. 10;Columbus North;5:30 p.m.

Dec. 12;at Jennings County;6 p.m.

Dec. 14;at Shelbyville Relays;1 p.m.

Dec. 21;New Albany;11 a.m.

Jan. 9;at Bedford North Lawrence;6 p.m.

Jan. 11;at Bloomington North Diving Invitational;9 a.m.

Jan. 14;at Madison;6 p.m.

Jan. 23;at Seymour;6 p.m.

Jan. 25;Jeffersonville;11 a.m.

Jan. 29;Greensburg;6 p.m.

Feb. 1;HHC at Bedford North Lawrence;1 p.m.

Feb. 10;Bloomington North;6 p.m.

Columbus North

Today;Franklin;5:30 p.m.

Saturday;at North Central;10 a.m.

Dec. 5;at Seymour;5:30 p.m.

Dec. 7;Center Grove;10 a.m.

Dec. 10;at Columbus East;5:30 p.m.

Dec. 14;Columbus North Relays;11 a.m.

Dec. 21;Holiday Splash at Hamilton Southeastern;9 a.m.

Jan. 9;Bloomington North;6 p.m.

Jan. 11;at Bloomington North Diving Invitational;9 a.m.

Jan. 25;Conference Indiana at Vigo County Aquatic Center;1 p.m.

Jan. 30;Oldenburg Academy;6 p.m.

Go here to see the original:
Water Wonders / Boys swimmers set to hit the pool for competition - The Republic

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero