Amanda Xi '25
Oct 7, 2022
Already the pride of Blue Storm athletics, Mercersburg Academy’s swim team is ready for another year of winning meets and setting school records.
To maintain such a high level of competitiveness, coaches provide rigorous training in the fall, winter, and spring seasons. The fall season consists of intrasquad meets and club competition and rather than invitational meets. Swimmers, of course, express their fatigue. “Sometimes everyday practice is tiring, but swimming every day is what it is,” said Sierra Guo ’25, the fatigue, doesn’t diminish swimmers’ determination and ambition.
“Since day one, the team has meshed together very well, and we are one of the closest groups of people that you'll find on campus. Coach Glenn [Neufeld] has done an exceptional job of bringing in new talent this year as well as simultaneously working with athletes that he has been with and continuously developing them into better swimmers and people,” said Teddy Blake ’23.
This fall season is the first in a few years that swimmers are not restricted by COVID-19 regulations, and the strong first half to the season marks the beginning of a hopeful year. While swim is a year-round sport here, winter is the season when the team travels to large meets like the Eastern Interscholastic SwimmingChampionship (familiarly known as “Easterns”), where they compete with teams from around the nation. In addition, there is also a midseason meet at Franklin and Marshall College that swimmers will train for. This and other such meets is where the real competition begins.
“To me, [my goal] every year is to win Easterns. Some years we do, but if not, the goal is to be high up in rankings,” said Neufeld.
With the boys winning the championship and the girls being runners-up last winter, the swimmers have already set the bar high, but this year many swimmers hope to win a “triple crown” victory, which consists of claiming the boys title, girls title, and the combined title. Of course, this is never easy.
“Rising to the challenge and facing those in the way is what champions are made out of. We will show them how great we are. Greatness in our hearts as well as in our bodies,” concluded Blake.