Indians’ swim team stays keen in the water during break
The 2011-2012 season has already been a successful one so far for Indian River’s varsity swimming team, with inspiring victories obtained, several state cuts reached and school records shattered. And with half the season still left ahead of them, the swimmin’ Indians aren’t showing signs of slowing down. More impressively, they’re doing so with a program that’s only three years old.
Coastal Point • File photo
Logan Ferry swims a lane during a recent meet.
With more than two weeks since their last meet, the main concern through the holiday break was keeping their skills up to par.
“The whole mindset of over the break was to lot lose our conditioning,” said Indian River boys’ varsity head coach Colin Crandell. “The whole team is still in that building period, and the main goal was to not lose what we already had.”
Fortunately, voluntary swim time was available to the team, and the entire roster made sure to take full advantage of it.
“We had everyone get into the pool over the break,” said Crandell, “and that’s what we were really looking for. We don’t want to have to play catch-up at our next meet.”
This Thursday, Jan. 5, the Indians were set to head to the Sussex YMCA, where they were to face Cape Henlopen.
One thing that both the boys’ and girls’ varsity teams possess this season is strength in skill. Both teams boast a young roster, led primarily by sophomores and even freshmen. If nothing else, the success that the teams are seeing now is projected to resonate for seasons to come.
Where the teams excel in strength, though, they falter in numbers. Both the boys’ and girls’ team have given up meets to opponents solely on the basis of being outnumbered. Without the sufficient number of swimmers to participate, and each swimmer only being allowed to compete in four events each meet, a smaller roster will simply not fare as well against a packed one.
For example, if Indian River has only one competitor in a particular race, and their opponent enters three swimmers, even an Indian River first-place finish can be null and void when the other lanes score in second, third and fourth. The trouble is even more noticeable in relays, where teams score double. Two relay teams can finish third and second, third and fourth, if the numbers are great enough, and outscore a first-place finish by their singular opponent.
“It’s definitely frustrating,” said Crandell, “but the numbers will fall where they fall. All we can do is go out there and swim our best against each and every opponent.”
As the meets progress through the season, so, too, does the focus.
“We have really been looking at endurance through the first part of the year,” said Crandell, “but now, headed into the Cape Henlopen meet, we want to shift towards speed.”
To help the team ready for Thursday’s meet, Crandell set the bar for the boys’ team.
“We have a few goals that we want to reach,” he said. “We’re hoping to pick up at least six first-place finishes, five personal bests and two new state cuts. Jung Son is closing in on the state cut in the 100 breast, and Ben Boonin is close in the 100 fly. Each are a second and a half to two seconds off, and we’d really like to see them get make that cut this week.”
Currently, the boys’ varsity team has qualified in a dozen state qualifying times, and even has a relay team that would have made last year’s top 10 at states.
“Both myself and [girls’ head coach Donna Smith] are very proud of what these kids are accomplishing in the pool. It’s been a great year so far, and we’re hoping to finish the season with a strong showing.”
Following this week’s competition against Cape Henlopen, the Indians will play host to Seaford next week, as they take on the Blue Jays at the Howard T. Ennis pool on Tuesday, Jan. 10.
