IR swimmers, boys and girls, shine with a victory over Seaford

Indian River High School’s swim team has been struggling with the numbers game since the program’s inception, back in 2009. Although the quality of talent across the roster is comparable to, and sometimes surpasses, the competition from programs a decade old, limited rosters on both the boys’ and girls’ teams have made scoring a test in their first years.

Coastal Point • R. Chris Clark
Indian River and Seaford swimmers take the plunge on Tuesday afternoon, as the girls; 200-meter freestyle gets under way. The Indians boys and girls teams came away with a win over the Blue Jays.

But this past week, the playing field was leveled, as Indian River hosted the Seaford Blue Jays, who boasted a similar roster in terms of the number of athletes. The Indians’ talent stood above the rest as the boys’ team picked up their fourth win of the season, and the girls’ team grabbed their first of the year.

“With Seaford being a small team like us,” said boys’ head coach Colin Crandell, “we were pretty evenly matched. And Seaford has some great swimmers. Luckily, we came out on top.”

A few familiar faces finished atop the leader boards for the guys, as sophomore Carter Michael clocked four personal bests in his events, including a time of 58.2 seconds in the 100-meter fly, an event he swam in 1:01 a month ago. Merrick Kovatch, another sophomore on the team, traditionally competes in the lengthier events but swam off-events against Seaford to wrap up an undefeated afternoon.

“Merrick usually swims the 200- and 500-meter,” Crandell said, “but we put him in shorter events and he broke the team records. Merrick’s done outstanding for us, and he’s not lost a race this year that he has competed in.”

But what Crandell is even more pleased about are the young swimmers who are stepping up and continuously making personal improvements in their races.

“In swimming, just like in any sport,” he said, “you’re going to eventually hit a plateau. You expect your strongest swimmers to do well in competition, but you can’t expect them to drop their times every meet. Sometimes, it feels like you’re hitting a wall. It’s when you have the secondary swimmers continuing to make drops and shave some seconds off, that really helps to drive the team.”

Over the past two meets, Benjamin Boonin has cut his time in the 100-fly by 1.5 seconds, each time, to come within 0.2 seconds of the state cut. “Guys like him are pushing themselves in every realm,” said Crandell. “I’m happy if our swimmers stay consistent and hold their times right around where they are. But to have guys still cutting times like they are, it’s amazing.”

For the girls’ side, a number of swimmers have already made state cuts and everyone has recorded a personal best this season.

“What myself and Donna are noticing,” said Crandell of Donna Smith, Indian River’s girls varsity head coach, “is a sense of leadership among the girls. Kirsten Goodman has really stepped up, and we’re seeing more courage in the girls’ team. A lot of them are competing in events that they didn’t have the courage to try in the beginning of the year. But with leaders emerging, it’s reflecting in confidence and team unity, and that’s really good to see.”

Though swimmers compete according to gender, several of the females will practice with their male counterparts.

“When they’re all practicing in the pool,” said Crandell, “they’re training as a team. Some of the fast girls, like Karlie [Smith] and Marissa [Fox] are swimming with the guys. It comes down to ability. And when the girls see the guys perform well, it motivates them, too.”

With three meets left in the season before conferences and states, the focus at practice is intensity.

“In order to keep that drive and that hunger,” noted Crandell, “we’re trying to get everyone giving their all at practice and swimming with the same intensity. We’re not going to have them swim against a very long distance, but what they do swim should be all-out.”

Similar to the way runners train, distance competitors will often break the uniform and monotony of a distance run with wind-sprints.

“Our times are holding, even with fatigue in there,” said Crandell. “That’s a good thing. The first part of the year, we were focused on endurance and technique. This high intensity will help even more with speed in the water. The goal,” he noted, for the boys’ team, “is to win out the season. The girls have a really good shot, too. It can get daunting when you can’t quite get a win for a while, but the win over Seaford will really put the girls in good spirits and show them they can do this.”

The Indians will host Lake Forest on Wednesday, Jan. 18, at the pool at Howard T. Ennis in Georgetown. They will continue the following week against Caesar Rodney, at the Central Delaware YMCA.