A pair of area scholastic swim teams hope to surface with championship gold when all is said and done this spring.
At La Jolla Country Day School, the Torreys under head coach Nate Heppner return most of their CIF contributors.
“We finished second in the Eastern League last year and hope to achieve a similar level of success this season,” Heppner commented.
On the girls side, seniors Chelsea Burns (sprint free), Norae Shakur (fly), and Melanie Kaplan (distance free) will anchor the team. Juniors Kelly Janus (fly), Claire Altree (free), and Hallie Stevens (breast), along with freshman Alexandra Trifunovic (breast, I.M.) will be strong contributors, according to Heppner.
On the boys side, the Torreys are rebounding from a rebuilding year.
“We have a strong group of juniors and seniors, led by CIF qualifiers junior Henry Clausner (breast) and senior Ryan Frace (back),” Heppner noted.
Senior Justin Pierson (distance free) returns after a year off and will be strong as well, according to Heppner. Other contributors will be junior Jihoon Yoon (breast, I.M.) and freshman Donald Dean (fly, free).
“We hope to finish in the top half of the Eastern League standings this season,” Heppner added.
At The Bishop’s School, head coach Chad Bishop and the Knights look to improve on last season’s records. The girls went 4-3 (fifth place at CIFs) and the boys finished 1-6.
Key returnees include junior Noel Elgamal, and sophomores Andrea Basaraba and Sarah Presant for the girls. Seniors Billy Tifft and Jake Feaver, and junior Scotty Siegel should help the boys team.
“Five years ago when I took over the program, we only had 14 swimmers between the boys and the girls; this year we’ve grown to over 60,” Bishop said. “For the first time we have the raw numbers to compete with the larger Division II schools. Hopefully our individual performances will reflect this larger availability of talent.”
Bishop added he has high hopes for this season for other reasons as well.
“The team has a great combination of veteran leadership and young, energetic newcomers,” Bishop added.
” Editor’s note: La Jolla High did not respond to several requests for information on its team.