Seymour swim coach Dave Boggs says he’s hit the lottery during his coaching career.
He’s coached an Olympian in Pat Calhoun, several All-Americans and countless state qualifiers, and he expects this year’s crop of talent to produce success in the pool.
Last season, Devin Ramsey was the cream of the crop for the Owls, finishing second at state in diving by just three points.
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Freshmen will be leading the diving side of things for the Owls this season as Kaleb Brown will try to fill in the shoes left behind Ramsey. Kate Connell and Alex Weaver will shoulder the diving duties on the girls’ side.
It won’t be uncommon for underclass swimmers and divers to lead the Owls this season as Boggs says he has a lot of youth to draw from this year.
“We’re kind of a young team this year, but most of everyone on the boys team has experience,” Boggs said. “We’ll be all right.”
Some of that experience Boggs alludes to is seniors Trevor Layne and Harrison Cottrill as well as junior Bryce Miller.
Layne was 18th in the state in the breaststroke last season, just missing the Day 2 cut at the state finals. Miller will compete in the freestyle events and Cottrill will also compete in the 100 free.
On the girls’ side, sophomore Maren McClure stands out to Boggs and she is expected to compete in the individual medley and the breaststroke. Senior Abby Boyt will also compete in the IM and the breastsroke as well as the butterfly.
Boggs also will be looking to junior Sandy Cerino to score plenty of points.
The Owls have traditionally been in the upper half of the Hoosier Hills Conference, but doing well at the league meet isn’t a big concern for them.
To Seymour, success of the season is measured at how well they perform at the sectional meet and, should they qualify, at state.
The regular season is just more practice time for building towards their postseason goals according to Boggs.
Plenty of fall sports stars are also swimmers to look out for this year.
On the girls’ team, Olivia Fish and Lillian Sunbury are just a couple of athletes to look out for. For the boys, soccer players Carter Hendrix and Isaac Schafer are some swimmers to keep an eye on.
Boggs explains he gets a lot of multi-sport athletes on his teams.
Swimming might not be their passion, it’ll help them in their sport of choice come next season.
Though this will be a younger group of Owl swimmers, Boggs hopes they don’t focus solely on winning and look towards simply getting better.
“Maintain the tradition of working hard and doing your best,” he said of what he hopes to get from his athletes this year. “Taking away friendships that will last you into your adult lives and the good times we have. Just basically continuing that tradition we’ve had for the last several years now.”
The Owls get their season started next Tuesday on the road against HHC rival Madison. Their first home meet of the year will be Thursday, Dec. 5 against Columbus North.