BETHLEHEM, Pa- The Lehigh girls’s swimming and diving group is likely to be younger, however the expectations are excessive for the 2022-23 marketing campaign. The Mountain Hawks will open up the season towards the Loyola Greyhounds on Oct. 8 at Jacobs Pool. It will likely be their first and final meet at dwelling this season.
Since that is Lehigh’s solely dwelling meet of the season, it’ll even be Senior Day for Ashley Carper, Sarah Hardy, Hannah Lord, Mary Mahoney, Danielle Prekop and Hallie Wilson.
The ladies’s facet is made up of six seniors, eight juniors, 5 sophomores and eight first years.
With new folks, comes new management. Head Coach Rob Herb mentioned this yr’s group is only a actually optimistic energetic group of ladies.
“They’re very robust each within the classroom and within the pool,” mentioned Herb. “There is a new sunshine and a brand new feeling that everyone is attempting to maneuver in direction of that Patriot League Championship.”
The ladies’s group may also have two coaches that will likely be by their facet this season.
Mary Ellen Wydan and Cindy O’Donnell are the 2 new coaches for the Mountain Hawks. O’Donell will give attention to the divers, whereas Wydan will spend time with the swimmers.
“Cindy O’Donnell is extremely robust, and we already see the ladies leaping of their potential in only a month,” Herb mentioned. “With the addition of Mary Ellen, I imagine every thing is transferring in the appropriate path in direction of the ladies’s facet. They’re very gifted but additionally very younger. There’s a whole lot of expertise wanted and confidence wanted to be constructed, however the expertise is there.”
The ladies’s facet is led by sophomore Natalie Martin, who’s the lone returning All-Patriot League performer. Final yr, Martin earned a fifth place end within the 500-yard freestyle and a sixth place end within the 1,650-yard freestyle in her first Patriot League Championships.
Sophomore Willa Werwaiss and sophomore Maggie Mikalic have been the opposite two freshmen on the time who scored at Patriots. Werwaiss had an eighth-place end within the 100-yard backstroke B-Last, and Mikalic was part of the 200-yard freestyle relay that completed in seventh-place.
Sophomore diver Sarah Gill is one other one who had a big effect in her first season. Gill completed in twelfth place on the Patriot League Championships with a rating of 234.10.
“Final yr’s freshman class, which is now the sophomore class, carried out the perfect of any group of any class at Patriots,”Herb mentioned. “They actually stepped up their recreation. That class continues to anchor every thing. All of them stored us within the meet, or else we might have fallen to final. No query.”
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