Bedford North Lawrence swimmers seek stellar 2021-22 season

BEDFORD — The pool would appear to be the last location on the list in late November as temperatures tank down toward freezing.

For a bunch of hearty young souls on the Bedford North Lawrence swim team, however, there is no place they'd rather be whether it's snowing or sunny.

Of course, their pool is somewhat warm — except for that first plunge of the day — and is surrounded by an enclosed area that often feels like a mild sauna, but it's still water in winter.

Bring it on says the 2021-22 Stars, who will have widely varying goals between the boys and girls teams this season. The boys are loaded with a plethora of strong swimmers and hold strong team aspirations among their plans, while the girls have an ultra-small squad and will chase individual accomplishments.

Season off to solid start

The BNL boys have bolted out with a strong start in dual meets with a huge win over Edgewood and a very close loss to defending Hoosier Hills Conference champion Floyd Central in the first two meets. The Stars battled the Highlanders stroke for stroke before succumbing 97.5 to 85.5.

"The guys had a real chance at the team win today but we fell a little short but we have bigger goals set for later in the season and this is just one of the early steps toward them," said head coach Adam Young. "We have 22 boys out for the team this year, with 19 swimmers and three divers, so we finally have more than enough to fill all of the events with quality competitors.

"That means we have excellent depth, and that's always vital for your team scores whether it's a dual meet or a big meet like conference or sectional. So the boys have some pretty high goals this season.

"Not only do we have depth, but we finally have competition for relays and all events, which is great for a team because it makes everybody want to get faster. And almost all of them swam diligently during the offseason, and I can already tell it's paying off."

The girls have only six swimmers out, so their focus is almost singularly on winning individual races, though the Stars nearly downed Edgewood in the opener before falling, 77-70.

"It's surprising to me that we had so few girls come out because we'd won our first sectional in a long time recently, and there have been quite a few swimmers in the youth club," Young said. "But we'll go forward with the girls who are here and are working very hard. We have some good swimmers out for the team, just not many, and there are a lot of very good swimmers coming along from middle school soon."

Seniors leading charge for boys

Senior captain John Allen is undefeated in four individual events, while fellow senior Alexander Swenson, who won the 200-yard individual medley last year at sectional to qualify for the State Finals, is also off to a fast start with two 100 butterfly wins in sub-58.

"John will swim the 50, 100 and 200 freestyles, and he really put in the hard work over the summer," Young noted. "He did extremely well at the end-of-summer age-group championships, and he's starting off the season swimming as fast as he did at the end of last year, so he's going to have a big senior year.

"Alexander can do any event, really, and he went to state in the IM last year and had a big year in the 500 free, but we're probably going to pull him from that and move him to the 100 butterfly this season. He's so versatile."

Senior Garrett Henson will man the breaststroke, while Noah Carter is back out, and Cameron Haste is coming out first the first time as a senior.

"Garrett is our best breaststroker and he'll do the fly as well, along with relays," Young said. "Noah is a second-year swimmer and getting better, and Cameron Haste is giving it a shot. It's good to have those guys with us."

Trey Kimbley (a 200 free win) and Cole Baker (two 100 backstroke victories) have each bolted out of the gate well to lead the junior class. Hayden Puckett has will contribute nicely in the 500 and 200 freestyles.

"Cole was second in the 50 free and third in the 100 back at sectional last year, and he's already looking strong there," Young said. "Trey is one of our tool-box kind of guys who can do so many events for us. He's really worked hard and improved. Hayden is going to give us a lot of points this year in the 500 and 200."

Kade Bailey and Cameron Miller give the Stars a strong diving contingent, along with freshman Jaevyn Nikirk. Those three swept the event against Floyd Central Saturday, giving BNL eight points, with Bailey posting a score of 157.15.

"Those three divers are working so hard and really improving all the time," Young said. "It's huge to have three solid divers to send out there every meet."

The sophomores are Isaiah Eicle, Jayden Kemp and Jayden Duke.

"Isaiah can do just about any event really well," Young noted. He's really coming on in the breaststroke, and he stepped in and had a strong medley relay leg for us Saturday with Garrett out because of illness.

"Kemp just needs a little more experience, but he's gong to contribute, and Duke is out with an injury so we still kind of have to see there."

Young has nine freshmen out with Zeke Eicle, Garrett Gabhart, Carson Puckett, Ashton Borodach-Mullis, Oliver Brown, Logan Langley, Lazarus Kagamann and Vincent Knight in addition to Nikirk.

"It's a good group of young swimmers," Young said. "Garrett, Zeke and Carson all swam middle school and LCA, so they're ready to contribute. A lot of the others are new, but talented and will work their way up. They're already contributing on relays.

"We'll need all this depth because we were second by 180 points to Jasper last year at sectional. We have a long way to come, but it isn't out of the question with our quality and depth. And we also think we're in the mix for conference. It's a very tough conference for swimming, but the boys want to get back in the hunt."

Gabhart guiding BNL girls

The BNL girls have to make up for the graduation losses of 500 freestyle sectional champion Ursula Patton and freestyle sprinter and backstroker Kaitlyn Hackney, but junior Emma Gabhart is back and that's an extremely good place to start.

Gabhart is the leader of the slim squad and is one of the top female swimmers in the state. She is already the school record holder in the 100 breaststroke (1:06.95) and 200 IM (2:07.66), and is a two-time HHC and sectional champion in both events. She finished 14th last year in the IM and barely missed making it back to the second day in the breaststroke at the IHSAA State Finals in Indianapolis.

"Emma is just a great swimmer and she's come back ready for a strong junior year," Young said. "I believe she's our first swimmer to make it back to the second day of state since Justine Jones in the early 2000's or late 1990s, and we're looking for more school records and championships from her this season."

Junior Shelby Slaughter is hoping to move up one spot at sectional this year in the 500 free after placing second to Patton last season, while junior Bella Held is the team captain and a backstroker. Junior Katelyn Moody, junior diver Ashley Starks and freshmen Madeleine "Cookie" King and Katamu "Kat" Kwakye comprise the remainder of the squad.

"There obviously aren't many of them, but they're good swimmers and they're putting in the time and effort to improve," Young said. "We're simply not going to compete for team wins with so few, but the girls have some big individual goals and they'll pursue them with all they have.

"It's a promising season. By and large the pool is full of talent in every lane during practice."

The Stars are back in action Thursday night at Bloomington North.

Contact Times-Mail Sports Writer Jeff Bartlett at jeffb@tmnews.com, or on Twitter @jeffbtmnews.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Mail: Bedford North Lawrence starts 2021-22 boys and girls swimming season