Swimming and Diving season began on Dec. 4 with McNick facing off against multiple Dayton teams. The McNick team is just getting warmed up and will have its next meet Jan. 5, at St. Bernard High School. The season runs through mid-February.
Tessa Lengerich is the Head Coach of Swim Team, and has been coaching for four seasons. Her favorite part of it is teaching the swimmers. “I like teaching the kids, whether it’s new techniques, drills, or concepts. I like seeing the rewards of their hard work. With me, I try to teach them more than just swimming,” Lengerich said.
According to Lengerich, the Swim Team has done well at their first meets but will have a break from meets over the Christmas holiday so that they can focus on training.
“We are getting over some sickness and injuries so as to come on strong and be healthy in the end when it really counts,” Lengerich said.
Swim Team consists of Assistant Coach Martin Martinez, Class of 2016 members Shelby Miller and Rick Riede, Class of 2017 member Emma Hughes, Class of 2018 members Natalie Martinez and Nicholas Rosenbaum, and Class of 2019 members Ellie White, Emily Potter, Janelle Maxwell, AJ Gregory, and Nick Russo.
White has been swimming for seven years, and was on other swim teams before coming to McNick. Her previous team was much larger, but she prefers the smaller team. She said that because the team is small, they’re more banded together and are able to know each other well.
Rosenbaum, a swimmer since the age of 8, agreed with White. “We’re all closer together. Because there’s fewer of us, we have to stick together more,” he said.
Martinez, a swimmer for eleven years, also enjoys the small size of the community, as well as the competitiveness of the race. She said she enjoys the feeling that she’s put so much into swimming, and even though it may be tiring, it’s rewarding to know that she’s done a good job.
Senior Salvatore Marino is the only McNick diver. He comes from a family of swimmers, but he didn’t have the same love of swimming as the rest of his family. Instead, he chose to dive, and has been diving for seven years. Swimming and diving are different sports, so Marino is separate from the Swim Team. He has a separate coach that he shares with divers from Ursuline, Wyoming, and Walnut Hills during practice. His whole schedule is different from Swim Team’s, too. Marino said that more people should join Dive because once he graduates at the end of this year, there will be no one left, and diving shouldn’t disappear from McNick athletics.
Rosenbaum said more should join Swim Team because it helps with breathing and heartrate, plus it’s fun and has a close community.
Martinez agreed that Swim Team deserves more people. “Swimming is one of those sports where you feel like you’re going to die after, but you still love it. You get to meet so many new people. It’s a lot of fun and good exercise,” she said.
The McNicholas Milestone 