Northern Tier Sports Report

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NTL SWIMMING & DIVING: NEW ERA STARTS FOR TOWANDA (2023-12-03)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
It’s a new era for Towanda swimming and diving with new coach Hannah Deacon taking over. Their boys’ numbers are up as they look to grow more competitive as they grow their roster.

They boast 12 boys on the season, led by returnees Eric McGee, Sean Lauber, Alex Lantz, and Braeden Pratt. She’s hoping they’ll provide the leadership needed to take things to the next level.

“I feel like setting the example of how practices are, how meets go,” she explained. “Just giving advice to some of those swimmers that maybe are struggling on certain things.”

Individually, she has three returning district qualifiers in McGee, Lauber and Lantz.

“I’d like to see them improve, always,” Deacon said. “Make that top 20 board we have out in the hallway. I want them to meet their goals. We just had a goal sheet, they just filled that out, and I’d like to see them meet their goals.”

Lauber and Lantz competed in both the 200 and 500 free last year at districts. Lantz was 10th in the 200 and 11th in the 500, while Lauber was 12th in both races.

McGee took 22nd in the 100 free, and is hoping to make a jump from that point this year.

“I’m definitely focusing on the (100 fly) because we have a lot of new people on our team, so we’ll definitely need some placeholders, and were also doing diving. Its going to be a lot of fun,” said McGee.

They haven’t done diving recently, but many of them jumped at the chance.

“I started doing it during open swim and I just loved it,” McGee said.

As for in the pool, McGee is hoping to hit under 1:20 in the fly. He’s working on his technique and flip turns to try and bring his time down.

“I definitely want to keep my head level, because sometimes I get too high,” he remarked.

He’s enjoying all the new faces, as it gives them a chance to compete as a team in ways they hadn’t been able to recently.

“We’re going to be able to get a to of points, and a higher chance of winning,” he said.

As for districts, he’s hoping to get his seed time a little further down.

“I’ve more or less barely got in with that,” explained McGee.

The number for the girls is still on the low side with just three.

“We’re trying to recruit some,” said Deacon. “To at least get maybe a relay, but it’s hard to get those kids out.”

They will be diving, too, so they’ll be new in the pool and out.

“They do have to put in that extra time to work on technique, and stuff like that,” Deacon said about the girls. “I hope to see that will improve them with their times.”

She’s also hoping to build a strong culture for her team, both in the pool and out.

“I want to set some fun things up for these kids to do outside of swimming,” said Deacon. “To build a real team feel.”

ROSTER (Grade)

Girls

Katelyn Blokzyl (10)

Morgan Lamphere (11)

Marin Maynard (10)

Boys

Xander Pratt (9)

Lake Strickland (9)

Nolan Deacon (10)

Sam Fulmer (10)