Photo by Baileyaynephotography

In a recent meet against Bishop Guertin, the Girls Swim Team had a close race in the 200 Medley relay.

Heading into the winter season, the LHS swim team prepares for a season full of high expectations and tough competition. While the swim team wants to exceed their hopes, right now they are focusing on building their reputation.

“Our expectations and goals are to get as many of our swimmers as possible onto the varsity group to represent Londonderry at the State Championships,” senior team captain Kevin Moscat said. “Many of our swimmers have made cuts and others are really close. We hope to make those cuts and surpass them.”

To continue their success this year, the team has been training non-stop during their off season.

“Our club swimmers are really strong this year,” Moscat said. “Our boys group is almost entirely on club teams and train year round. Many of our girls swimmers are also in clubs and well trained for the season. We aren’t starting from zero, we’re improving and taking those club team techniques and using them to improve in high school swimming.”

Though improving their team is always important, the team wants to also focus on finally having a normal season.

“Last year with Covid-19 we had a lot of setbacks and changes,” senior team captain Avery Crimmins said. “Things are getting better, so fingers crossed all goes well.”

One part of having a normal season means going back to team traditions.

“The team has a tradition of doing bonding events like team sleepovers, pasta dinners, and dinner after meets,” Crimmins said. “Every Friday you can find us at Juliano’s.”

The traditions the team has help them to better bond and prepare for hard meets, one of them being Pinkerton.

“The Pinkerton meet has always been a fun meet with good competition,” Moscat said. “This year we plan on going out with a quality over quantity mentality to win like we always do.”

Although Pinkerton is a tough competitor, the swim team is prepared with some key swimmers to look out for that will help them to secure the win.

“We have a really small team this year, only 13 of us, and because of that we have more time to work individually at building strengths and skills,” Crimmins said. “For the boys team I would definitely say that Sean Bailey is our biggest asset. For the girls team definitely Lexi Apholz. She has always been fast and this year she’s really getting strong and working on her technique.”

Going into this season, for the captains, this is their last chance to compete in high school. So, wanting to make this last year memorable, the swim team is anticipating a great season.

“Being my senior year and a captain alongside Avery Crimmins, I’m very excited to see what we are able to accomplish this season,” Moscat said. “I believe that this specific group of swimmers are very strong and we have a chance to do great things this year.”