The impact of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps winning eight gold medal has reached all across mainstream America this summer, peaking the interest of swimmers and non-swimmers alike.
Locally, numbers of swimmers have increased in the Wabash Valley too, including the three Vigo County high school swimming and diving teams.
“I think we’re getting an Olympic rebound to tell you the truth,” chuckled North boys coach Randy Jensen. “Terre Haute Torpedoes, we probably picked up easily 15 percent new kids. We’re up to almost 300 kids with the high school kids [included].
“The Olympics … about every four years we see a little bit of a bump in the numbers. This year though, it’s been a little more than it has been in the past obviously, because of the eight gold medals [Michael] Phelps won in the Olympic Games.
“Because of these last Olympic games, people have a little bit more respect with some of the things that swimmers go through and understand it a little bit more. And that’s a good thing.”
A Phelps’ factor?
“Maybe a little bit,” countered Terre Haute South coach Jeff Thompson. “Our boys team has been growing the last six or seven years. This year is our largest number of boys. For the first time ever had more boys than girls, 32-29.
“[Phelps] really did help us a lot,” stated West Vigo girls coach Doug Tilford. “Even our numbers in diving have increased. We only had two divers last year, right now we have three boys and three girls.”
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The following are previews of the three Vigo County boys and girls swimming teams:
• Terre Haute North — The boys team will be headed by seniors John Craig Huster and junior Paul Morris, both state qualifiers a year ago in medley relay, according to Jensen.
Another pair of performers are expected to fill big shoes of graduated seniors.
Junior Luke Lakstins will be the No. 1 diver, replacing Ricky Combs. Junior Thomas Manning (100 breaststroke) will replace David Broughton who finished seventh in the state meet last year.
Others being counted on for the 27-man strong team (21 swimmers, 6 divers) are junior Chris Huster, John’s younger brother (sprint freestyle), sophomore Holden Barnes (distance freestyle), freshman Matt Guell (distance freestyle, butterfly) and senior Will Kline (50, 100 freestyle, 100 butterfly).
“Obviously we want to win the sectional,” said Jensen. “We want to have a winning dual meet record. We just want to swim faster in general.”
Key returnees for the girls team are seniors Katie Guell (200, 500 free) and Emily Richards (100 back, 50 free). Guell placed 10th in the 500 free at last year’s state meet.
“Both are state qualifiers in the past and will be our two main cogs this year, both in the relays and individually,” said Jensen, speaking for girls coach John Newhouse. Newhouse accompanied Guell and Richards to a Grand Prix swimming event in Minneapolis last weekend.
Others expected to excel are sophomore Celeste Kline (500 free, 100 back), senior Leslie Britton (50, 100 free, 200 IM), junior Haley Tisdale (200 IM, 100 butterfly), sophomore Caroline Nichols (100 breast) and sophomore Ayla Walter (200, 500 free). All placed in the sectional last year.
Senior Stacy Cuthbertson and sophomore Megan Curley are their top two divers. “We have eight divers, somebody will break out of that group for the third spot,” Jensen noted.
“Our goals are about the same [as boys] … try to win the sectional, winning dual meet record and send a couple of relays and two or three individuals to the state meet,” Jensen said.
“It’s one of those deals where you want to get [to state], that ‘s the first step. Several of our girls have been there. Now we want to make sure they get there and place.”
• Terre Haute South — The boys team lost only a pair of seniors to graduation, Tyler Gertz — swimming collegiately at Purdue — and David Stockton, stated boys and girls coach Jeff Thompson.
Being heavily counted on is talented sophomore Addison Bray (breaststroke, IM), an All-American as a freshman. “We want to move him around in the lineup … have him also doing sprints and freestyles,” Thompson said.
Other big contributors are seniors Shane Weber (diving), Jordan Ellis (backstroke, sprint frees), plus juniors Daniel Card (sprint frees, relays), James Myers (all events), Matthew Shaver (butterfly, IM) and Thomas Weber (back, middle distance free).
Two freshmen to keep an eye on are V.J. Sakbun and Nolan Roach.
“I’d like to see how many relays we can get to the state tournament,” Thompson said. “If you have great relays, you have a great team. We’ll be hard to handle.”
Four seniors will lead the South girls, Megan Kendall, Kayelene Linkenheld, Caitilin Tincher and Alana Whitlock. “They all scored points for us in the sectional last year.”
Sophomore Cristina Elliott set the school record in the 100 free, and competed in three events at the state meet last year. Freshmen to watch include Mercedez Bray, sister of Addison, and Sarah Senseman. Top diver for the Braves is junior Chelsea Ford.
“Our goals are similar to the boys … be strong in relays, develop the ability to move around [events], and get to the state meet in February,” Thompson concluded.
• West Vigo — The boys team has no seniors and its top returnee is junior Shane Wycoff (diving, sprints, relays). “Shane was one place away from getting out of sectional last year,” said WV girls coach Doug Tilford, speaking for boys coach Dave Cooper.
Other leaders will be junior Matt Perkins (backstroke, middle distance), sophomore Jasper Shank (200, 500), and two freshmen, Cole Bennett (diving) and Jase Allsup (sprints, butterfly). Alsup set the middle school record in butterfly last year as an eighth grader.
“We feel good about the decent number of kids in our program now … double the number of last year,” Tilford said.
Two returning seniors for the 17-member girls team are Heather Switzer (middle distance) and Kelsey Debney (butterfly, IM). Also returning are sophomores Mary Roberts (butterfly, backstroke) and Emma Bird (200, 500).
The Vikings also have three new divers, senior Taylor Brown — on the team for the first time — along with sophomore Sarah Tennis and freshman Sveta Stott.
“It’s kind of a rebuilding year … we need the new girls to step up with so few returnees,” Tilford said. “We’ll know a lot more after we open our season on Thursday.”
High School
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