The men’s swim and dive team appears to be set up for a solid season and shows promise for success in future seasons with a large turnout  of freshmen and sophomores. The team, which has only 30 athletes total, has 10 new swimmers this year.

“I can definitely see the newer swimmers getting more comfortable with the more experienced ones and I am very happy with the attitude of the ‘veterans’ towards the new guys,” captain Timothy Johnson said.

With so many new athletes on the team, Coach Kyle Duggan, who works with the new swimmers, is working to get them used to the sport.

“Our goal is to introduce them to the sport, make sure they can do all four strokes legally, they can all do turns and starts well, get them in a little better shape than when they came in, and let them enjoy a sport that can be really rewarding on a personal level because it’s not so dependent on which player didn’t do their job or on the talent level of the kids on the team,” head coach Kris Daughters said. “You can attain some good results just yourself, but there’s also a team aspect.”

The season started with two losses to Bellevue and Newport. Key athletes include senior Connor Biehl, with a state qualifying time of 2:02.86 in the 200 IM, and Junior Nick Klatt who also qualified for state in the 200 IM; other swimmers are also expected to go to state as part of relay teams. In addition, 6 athletes qualified for districts and 12 qualified for Kingco.

“I think I’m going to get at least two-thirds of the team to Kingco,” Daughters said. “I think a good personal goal for me is if I can get half of the team qualified for districts. That’s attainable, but it’s going to be challenging.”