As the weather gets colder and the leaves turn from green to red, fall sports are coming to an end. Winter sports are just around the corner. The MLHS swim team is rooted in tradition, as one of the longest-standing sports at MLHS. Led by Coach David Leshnower, the swim team has been incredibly successful. For example, the women’s team boasts a three-peat Public C states title as of last year, which means they have won three years in a row.
The current team is full of promising swimmers from club teams as well as strong athletes who only swim for MLHS. Many club swimmers train year-round, while high-school-only members only train during the winter. The high school team swims at the Lakeland Hills YMCA. It should come as no surprise, then, that many of the club swimmers from the high school team are also part of the LHY club team, which is known in the swimming community as one of the best teams in the area. They have selective tryouts and intense training.
Coco Fraser (’20) and Cameron Carazza (’19) both swim for LHY. Coco broke two school records last year in the 100 yard breaststroke and 200 individual medley, helping the girls close out the third states victory in a year. She hopes to break her personal records in the 100 yard breaststroke and 200 yard individual medley, which includes all four strokes, and make it back to states and win again. Cameron is committed to TCNJ for swimming.
Coco Fraser breaking 100 breaststroke record!
The boys’ team has a strong group of freshmen swimmers and a considerable amount of seniors. There are fourteen freshmen boy swimmers, five sophomores, one junior, and six seniors. The seniors were strong members of the team last year as juniors, and will be great leaders on the team.
Within the freshmen, a few standouts are sure to make a splash. Liam Lynk (’22) is one of the most promising new swimmers. He is a national level swimmer for his club team, LHY. He has high goals set for the future, hoping to come within three seconds of the 500 yard freestyle. Coco Fraser, Brad Bogues (’19), and Coach Leshnower have all expressed excitement to see Liam swim. Liam looks forward to becoming part of the close-knit community of MLHS swimming. An outstanding swimmer in all four strokes, he will be an excellent addition to the team. In addition, there are many other notable new swimmers on the men’s team, including Adam Lalani, Preston Smith, and Matthew Graff.
Among these seasoned club swimmers, there will be a few athletes who are trying competitive swimming for the first time. Many of them are athletes already, participating in sports like cross country and rowing. It will be exciting to see them grow as swimmers.
The girls’ team also shows great promise. It is a very real possibility to see them win the states championship for the fourth year in a row. Freshmen Elizabeth Tsang and Lily Hann have already achieved MLHS record-breaking times at club meets in the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly, respectively.
There are currently six senior boys and eleven senior girls, many of whom have been dedicated members of the team for four years. There is no doubt that they will be great leaders and mentors to the underclassmen. Brad Bogues, a senior, has stated that one of his main goals is to be a leader on the team. He hopes to make it further than last year, where the boys team failed to make states. Brad has said that one of his favorite parts of swimming is that the team is very much a family. Seniors act as the parents of the team, helping out with rides for underclassmen as well as giving sound advice from years of experience.
Coach Leshnower is also very excited for this season: “I don’t like to make predictions, but my goals are for the men’s team to win their sectional title, the girls’ team to win states again and beat Morristown and Chatham.” Morristown and Chatham are two of MLHS’s major swimming rivals. Meets against them are both so-called “power point” meets. This means that they are some of the most important meets in the season for the team. The girls were defeated by both Morristown and Chatham last year. Coach Leshnower hopes that with this year’s new arrivals and strong leadership MLHS can emerge victorious.
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