As we reach the halfway point of the winter athletics season, the boys and girls swimming and diving teams are looking to keep their momentum rolling with the New England Championship and the Founders League Championship coming up.
Girls Head Coach Kata Baker described the swimming season in three phases. “There’s before winter break, winter break, and after winter break, and they are very different,” she said. This particular season started very fast. The team had three total practices to start the season before their first meet against Hopkins School, a historically strong team. Coach Baker discussed how that first meet isn’t always about winning, especially with the limited amount of practice beforehand and the level of competition they were facing. “It’s about driving off the blocks and trying,” she said.
The team’s first win came against Wilbraham and Monson Academy, which came down to the last two events where the team got the win. The team is coming off a really close meet against Canterbury School, taking the win with a score of 74-73.
Boys Head Coach Alex Kraus similarly broke down the season into three phases. Coach Kraus described the month of January as the midseason. The team is currently building endurance, adding new skills, creating mental toughness, and overall becoming stronger swimmers. The boys team performed very well at the KITs, placing third out of seven teams. The team is also coming off a big win against Canterbury School, 87-79.
Senior Co-captain Aiden Ladewig said that this season has featured a lot of growth and improvement. “We’ve been building up new swimmers and getting experienced swimmers back to where they were last year,” Ladewig said.
Senior Co-captain Charlotte Eberle agreed. “This season has been mainly based on growth,” she said. “Swimmers in their beginning stages were probably swimming around 50m a month ago, but now are working in 150m or 200m in their workouts.”
For the girls team, Coach Baker highlighted the efforts of sophomore Miya Scranton, one of the strongest breaststroke swimmers on the team. This season, Scranton has dropped four seconds, constantly improving each time she swims. Coach Baker also mentioned senior Stephanie Lu and her versatility. “She’ll swim anything,” Coach Baker said. “I can put her in any event. She is a really strong leader for our team.” Eberle mentioned Lu along with sophomore Sydney Parker, who both swim long distances at high levels.
Coach Kraus was quick to highlight two of the strongest swimmers and divers on the boys team, senior Co-captain Eli Brandt and junior Damian Czartoryjski. Brandt recently set a new school record in diving and continues to produce impressive points for the team. Czartoryjski has performed well all season, consistently being one of the best swimmers on the team. Ladewig mentioned some of the younger members of the team who have performed quite well. The names of freshmen Samit Virmani and Daniel Girgorian were mentioned as two of the stronger young swimmers for the Wyverns.
Coach Baker mentioned that the youth of the team is a great strength. “We have a lot of strong freshmen and sophomores,” Coach Baker said. “The future looks good when we look at the next four years.”
Coach Kraus believes the balance and depth of the team are developing very well. “A swim team should be good, and you can’t just be good in one area,” Coach Kraus said. “The team is really good about understanding that they’re going to need to work hard to get better.”
The girls and boys swimming and diving teams have reached the longest stretch of the season, where there is a meet every Wednesday and Saturday. There are four meets left in the season for the girls and three for the boys before the tournaments. Both teams must face Kent School, St. George’s School, and Westminster School. The girls finish their season against Ethel Walker School and the boys finish their season against Westminster School. We wish both teams good luck for the rest of the season.
