Kyle Hwang '26
Oct 13, 2023
On September 30, Mercersburg Academy’s boys and girls swimming competed in its annual intrasquad Blue and White meet during Family and Alumni Weekend. The teams also competed in non-swimming events like volleyball, kickball, and a bellyflop contest.
The team has a strong group of returning and new swimmers who are already preparing for the important winter season. “The team is doing very well so far,” assistant coach Steve Fowler said. “We lost a lot of seniors last year, especially on the boys side, about twelve people. On the girls side, we have some talented seniors, which is good. But the boys are especially young. So it has been hard to reload, but we are really happy with the ones we picked up. You see the excitement for next year because they are developing and are already getting better this year. We have some real talents.”
On October 7, Mercersburg Academy invited Keystone Aquatics, Waynesboro Arena, and Shepherd University Wellness to compete in a USA Swimming invitational hosted at the Lloyd Aquatic Center. The invitational brought together many talented swimmers from across the country, a great learning opportunity for the Blue Storm swimmers. Fowler commented, “To watch somebody that was pro-level against us really helped. It boosts our kids. It was a very different atmosphere but we haven’t gotten any duel meets yet. That’s our high school competitive season, while right now is what we call a USA invitational season.”
During fall practices, the team has focused on strengthening and mock competition. Ingrid Janney ’24 said, “Now that we’re back in season, we are definitely doing a lot more yardage. We just started lifting again as well and doing more intense stuff. A lot more swimming, a lot more lifting.”
As always, the swim team seems to be united behind one goal: winning the combined title in the Eastern Interscholastic Championship meet. Fowler said, “Winning Easterns last year was a big deal. We had never actually won the combined title before. We’ve won the boys, we’ve won the girls, but we had never won the combined before. It’s really hard to do. But we still want to be up there on the podium.”
Fowler elaborated, “By the end of the fall term, we really want to be at a point as a team where we are ready to hit the intense training and step into our high school competitive season and just show everybody else who Mercersburg is. We want to have the trophy.”