Numbers on rise for swim team
By Joseph Cyr
Sports Editor
PRESQUE ISLE — Interest in swimming appears to be on the rise as the Presque Isle squad is seeing an increase in participation this year.
A total of 22 swimmers have joined the team, which has veteran coach Joyce Price excited for the season. The Wildcats lost three swimmers to graduation — Kyle Gilson, Ethan York and Jacob Brawn — and another three that chose not to return. However, Presque Isle has 11 new swimmers eager to fill the void left by those athletes.
“I have five senior swimmers who have swum for all fours years,” Price said.
Those athletes are Stephen Goulet, Shae Adler, Dara Raymond, Ashley Burlock and Jesse Lucas. Third-year returning swimmers are senior Alecia Palmer and juniors Erica Hemphill and Sarah McEachern. The Wildcats also have three second-year swimmers —senior Brock Cassidy and juniors Tristan Russell and Grace Short.
Ten freshmen and one senior comprise this year’s newcomers. The freshmen include Dustin Drabek, Issac Estey, Alex Hemphill, Joshua Jones, Jacqueline Lambert, Naomi McEachern, Erikka Murley, Heather Nadeau, Nate Dewitt and Sara Gilson and one senior Andrew Terpening.
“I have coached the varsity swim team for eight year and assisted for another eight years when the high school swimmer swam independently starting in 1994,” Price said. “John Leber has been the assistant swim coach for three years. John has coached for many years in Virginia taking several swimmers to nationals.
“Our team is still small in numbers and it will be hard to compete against the powerhouse of MDI and Bangor,” Price continued. “Our team does not have the luxury of a development team such as YMCA or U.S. swim team. [In comparison] Bangor High School has over 150 swimmers.”
Last year, Presque Isle had six losses and five wins. The Wildcat girls placed 15th at States, while the boys were 21st. At the PVC championship, the girls placed ninth and the boys 10th.
The Wildcats had four swimmers who qualified for States last year. Short qualified in 100-yard breaststroke; Hemphill qualified and placed fourth in the 50 freestyle and 10th in the 100 butterfly; Goulet qualified in 100 butterfly; and Kyle Gilson swam in 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke.
A breakdown of which events each athlete is projected to swim in is as follows:
Goulet will swim butterfly, breaststroke and freestyle; Adler will swim backstroke and freestyle; Short, Palmer, Cassidy, Russell, Sarah McEachern, Lambert, Hemphill and Estey are the team’s best swimmers and can qualify in every event; Murley should be the best distance swimmer; Raymond, Nadeau, Naomi McEachern, Burlock, Lucas, Jones, Drabek, Dewitt and Terpening will all swim freestyle events and other events as needed.
The managers for the team are Brittany Burlock and Barbara Bonville.
“I hope that each team member will have fun, learn developmental swimming skills and leadership skills to make this year a successful year,” Price said. “Each swimmer will control his/her own destiny. Practicing hard, learning stroke techniques, improving their strokes, turns and starts are all key factors in improving their times. Each swimmer should be able achieve their goals and work towards their goal and achieving their personal best time. Each swimmer can learn the power of teamwork. Each swimmer will complete not only with others, but with themselves and the stopwatch.”
The Wildcats will host three meets this year.
