Lake Orion’s Dragons are young and fast in the OAA White Division this season.
Coach John Jess said the team has a large number of talented underclassmen and wants to become a solid competitor. Jess is confident his Dragons will be strong, despite losing possibly the best swimmer in the state last year, Devon Nowicki, who is now at Oakland University.
‘We also have the addition of a few experienced freshmen that will help provide an instant boost to the team. As a team of only two seniors, we are looking at all of the things we can accomplish as a young group of guys and how that can translate throughout the season and into the future, Jess said.
The team moves into the OAA White Division this season, from the tougher Red Division where they were last season.
‘This should allow us to be very competitive even with a young group of swimmers and divers. Our goal as a team is to win an outright conference championship and that would make it only the third in boys swim and dive history.
An outright conference championship consists of winning all conference dual meets and the conference championship meet.
‘We are also looking to send a good group of boys to the Oakland County Championship meet and aiming for a group of individuals to compete at the Division 1 State Meet in Holland in March,? Jess said.
The team is on its way, starting with a 2-0 record that came with a conference win against Berkley and a non-conference matchup against Troy Athens.?
Here is a look at Lake Orion’s top swimmers in the different events:
Tim Seeds and Nate Emert (both seniors) should excel in freestyle sprints and butterfly, Junior Tanner Robertson in distance swimming; Junior Avery Womack in the backstroke; Junior Michael Lowry in the butterfly; Sophomores Zac Seeds and Evan Linquist in individual medley and breaststroke; Freshman Zahir Selem is expected to help in all freestyle events and backstroke. Freshman Olive Yu should be strong in freestyle and sophomore Alex Parry is the top diver.