After finishing second at Marcussen Invite, young swim team focusing on state run

At the Marcussen Invite on Oct. 5 at Holmes Pool, sophomore Kendall Mallaro swims the backstroke.

The new freshmen weren’t the only change for the women’s swimming and diving team this year. The team welcomed  a new assistant coach and new members to fill their relay spots. 

Although the team graduated strong seniors last year and is adjusting to changes in coaching, Grace Frericks, a sophomore on the team, said the team is ready for a deep postseason run. “We had to fill in some new relay spots and get some more girls leading the team, but we still have some strong girls. We’ll have good chances at State, but we are going to grow,” Frericks said. 

One of the leaders who has stepped up is Frericks. “I feel like I know a lot more now, and I feel more comfortable leading the team and helping the freshman and the new girls.”

Currently Frericks has the third fastest time in the 50 and 100 yard freestyle, the fifth fastest time in the 500 yard freestyle and the third fastest time in the 100 yard backstroke. 

On Oct. 5 at the Marcussen meet hosted at Holmes, senior swimmer Lauren Sulentic said that some girls swam postseason caliber races. The team place second 367 points behind Wisconsin’s Waukesha South who finished in first with 493 points. “There has been a couple of people who got a couple of state times,” she said. “Some people dropped times, but not everybody because it’s a hard meet to drop times because we are right in the middle of the season.”

Marcussen marks the end of the first half of the season and the beginning of the championship season where the girls are now getting ready for State. “Now we’ll start training more for ourselves, like what we really need. We’ll split into our specific stroke or distance,” Frericks said. 

After the Marcussen meet the team is ranked eighth in the state. Sulentic said the team’s goal is to “qualify as many people we can for State.”

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.