top of page

First and second at MAPL tri-meet

Paxton Diana '26

Jan 17, 2025

Last week Mercersburg Academy’s vaunted swim team traveled to Peddie School to compete in a MAPL meet with Lawrenceville School also participating. The boys took home first place, while the girls placed second. 

Preparing for the meet, the team made an impressive effort to get back into their routine after coming off a two-week winter break. Sophie Koroma ’26 said, “We were just working on getting our speed back up and working on becoming a good team, but I think the most important thing was just having each other's backs when you fall, when you don’t feel well, or when you don’t swim well; [we] use each other to get back up.” 

Head coach Matt Hurst explained, “Coming off of winter break, this is the first time the team has been together in almost a month. We did give them workouts to do when they were home. We had spent all of last week getting back together as a collective but also prepping them with some game-day speed practices so once they got to Peddie, they could be ready as they could be.”

The swim team has had a great start to the season and continues to enjoy success. “I feel like the season—even though we are only a couple weeks in the winter season itself—has been very positive with good results,” explained Raphael Sibuet ’25, “A lot of fast racing from not only our mid-seasons but also our dual-meet performances.” 

Coach Hurst added, “The team is doing very well so far. The fall is more individualized, but the winter is when we start to get into our MAPL season. It's nice to see that they are putting in details that we worked on since our individual time.”

Of course, this trend carried over to the meet this past weekend. Caiden Bowers ’25 noted, “I think, for the most part, the races were well executed; all we focused on was racing. I would like to highlight the whole medley relay: Jayden Kwon [’27], Raphael Sibuet [’25], Nick Green [’25], and I broke their pool record in 132.5.”.

With a few weeks left in the season, the swim team has established many goals to accomplish. Tuana Özdemir ’26 said, “Our team goals are probably the top ones. We want to win the Eastern Championships or score in the top three.” Harry Cameron ’26 stated, “We want to be the best team on the pool deck and not just having the fastest [swimmers].”

Heading into next week, Mercersburg will host meets against LaSalle College High School of Philadelphia for the boys and Mount Saint Joseph’s Academy for the girls. After that, the team will shift their focus to the MAPL Championship meet and Easterns.

Copyright 2024

bottom of page