Agates swim team has high hopes

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Tara Kasell, in her third year as the varsity coach, her fifth year with the program, wants to push her strong swimming group to another level.

“My expectations for the upcoming season are that the girls really push themselves in practice,” she said. “They are already awesome swimmers, so we need to push them to the next level by working really hard at practice.”

The majority of the team, which competes in the Polar League Conference, is made up of 10th graders (there are 10 on the team). Captain Andi Dahlgren swims the 200 free and Mercedes Leininger (diving) are the returning seniors. They will have Silver Bay senior Rachel Spies joining the team. “(Spies) moved to Silver Bay after swimming for Hill-Murray and she swims in the 500 free, and the 100 fly,” Kasell said. “We are very excited to have her on the team.” Sophomore Jennie Dwyer, the MVP last season, will be returning this season. She swims in the 500 freestyle, the 200 individual medley and 100 back. Junior captain Heather Fynboh will be back after she was out all last season with an injury. She swims butterfly and freestyle. State diving participant Rebecca Ronning, sophomore, was Section 7A champion and Diver of the Year, will also be returning. She also competes in the 200 freestyle event. Last season the team won three meets and tied one.

“This is a big improvement over the last couple years when we didn’t even win one meet,” Kasell said. “I would like to keep adding to the wins this season.” Kathy Ronning will be an assistant coach on the team. She is also the diving coach and was voted Section 7A Diving Coach of the Year.

Tags: two harbors, sports, swimming