Following up on last year’s impressive performance, the boys and girls swim and dive teams aim to repeat as regional powerhouses.
The girls team steamrolled its opponents over the past two years on its way to claiming first place at Metros for both seasons, while the boys team finished tenth last season at Metros.
The girls team returns Charlotte Meyer, Reia Tong, Victoria Kuhn and Audrey Gould, members of the record-setting 400-meter free relay team.
The Vikes’ biggest rivals will be the BCC Barons and the Blair Blazers. Despite its talent, Meyer says that the team needs to maintain a motivated mentality during the season in order to succeed.
“Some people could be overconfident because of winning Metros the last two years,” she said. “Everyone needs to remember to continue to work hard.”
Returning for the boys team are senior captains Stephen Rodan, Adam Bloom and Sam Woodbury, but the team’s strength comes from its talent from all the way through the roster, Rodan said.
“We have a lot of fast swimmers as well as good depth,” he said. “Our season should come down to a matter of out-touching our opponents.”
Despite the graduation of UNC diver Emily Schmidt (’11), the dive team will stay dominant. Head coach Geoffrey Schaefer believes that freshman Michaela Johnson will contribute right away.
“Replacing Emily is impossible at this stage,” he said. “But [Michaela] is definitely going to have an immediate impact.”
While the Vikings have the talent necessary to win Metros, Schaefer said that the pieces need to come together in order for the teams to claim victory.
“[Winning] depends on if we have the right chemistry and the right lineup,” he said. “We should be able to take back what is rightfully ours.”
In their faceoff against the BCC Barons Dec. 10, the boys won while the girls lost in a close meet.
For the boys, sophomore John Mooers won the 100 and 200 yard freestyle with times of 50.72 and 1:59:41 respectively. Mooers, along with Ben Bouvier, who won the boys 100 yard butterfly in 57.15, carried the boys team to an impressive victory by a score of 94-77.
Despite missing eight of its top swimmers, the girls team tested a strong BCC squad and almost came through with a victory, losing 85-76.
Hallie Kellet and Katie Mahaffie took first and second in the girls 100 yard freestyle with times of 58.29 and 58.91 respectively.
“We need to reboot against Churchill,” Schaefer said.
The team takes on the Churchill Bulldogs Dec. 17 at Montgomery Aquatic Center.
Coach Schaefer • Dec 19, 2011 at 7:42 am
please do not rip the reporter. Instead, e-mail information so he can correct the on-line article.
By pointing out what they do not write belittles the effort he put into the article. he dropped by my room on Monday after the meet and I could not give him all of the things I recall because of the 100 plates I spin on a daily basis. If anything, his lack of coverage is my fault.
-Coach Schaefer
M.G. whitman swimming • Dec 15, 2011 at 7:39 pm
pretty sure ben won 200 IM too and other swimmers like lisa deng should have been mentioned in the article because they won events. 100 free isn’t the only girl’s event… if you don’t send a black and white writer to the meets at least have them look at the results better. we all work really hard and we get painfully little coverage here. come on, black and white.