Marshall County High School swimmers making a splash

MCHS swim team
off to strong start

By Jody Norwood
Tribune-Courier Sports Editor
jnorwood@tribunecourier.com

DRAFFENVILLE– Marshall County High school’s swimming season is already underway and the team has hit the pool with an experienced group of swimmers. Head coach Trina Merrick said the team is balanced and has a good group returning.

“Right now I have 13 girls and 13 boys, which has never happened before,” Merrick said. “We’ve never had the same number of boys as girls. We’re usually very heavy on girls, but this year we’re balanced. We have a few less middle school swimmers than usual, but we’re spread out as far as age goes.”

The teams’ middle school members include eighth graders Austin Gordon, Allie Pearson and Grant Park; seventh grader Paul Hudson; and sixth graders Emelia Andersson and Landon Lindsey. Only thesixth graders and a couple swimmers who sat out a year are not returning from last year’s squad.

Adding to their experience, Merrick said all the swimmers have participated in Orange Waves, the summer swimming program.

Marshall County has a large group of seniors in Sydney Beckett, Nicholas Forte, Jenna Goins, Josh Gordon, Reed Stewart and Josh Tilson. Amanda Anderson, Blake May, Cale Merrick, Nolan Park and Ethan Walker make up the junior class.

Jessica Anderson, Erika Darnell, Hannah Owens, Sarah Telle, Evelyn Hudson, Sidney Jackson, Carli Merrick, Casey Moore and McKenna Petway make up Marshall County’s underclassmen.

“Everybody that’s swimming this year has been swimming Orange Waves. We have an experienced team,” Merrick said. Orange Waves is coached by two of Merrick’s former swimmers, Allie Darnell and Katherine Gordon.

“With the balanced team, I think we have a lot of kids that are going to move around in different events and move up into events, so I’m really excited. Having enough kids for both boys and girls to have two relays and practice those relays all the time, I think we have a good shot at placing at regionals, high enough maybe to take some kids to state this year.”

Last year the girls relay team was a few tenths of a second short of going to the state tournament. The boys, likewise, came close to advancing to the state tournament.

“That’s kind of where were are always in. We have to compete with Owensboro and Bowling Green and all the schools in the Owensboro-Bowling Green area who have a pool.”

Marshall County opened its season last week at Hopkinsville, placing fifth in the Rick Cohn Invitational.

“We always look forward to Hopkinsville,” Merrick said. “We didn’t get to have it last year. They were remodeling their pool. It’s a really fun meet.”

Without a home pool to call their own, Merrick said the team looks forward to meets at Murray and at the Paducah Athletic Club in Paducah. The team will be at the PAC Dec. 10 for the Paducah Invitational Tournament and at Murray Jan. 9.

“We always really like to swim as much as we can at Murray and at PAC in Paducah, because those are as close to home meets as we ever get,” Merrick said. “We have the most dedicated group of parents, I think, of any sport or activity at this school.”

Merrick said it’s always encouraging to the swimmers whenever they have a fan-following at the meets. The distance the team has to travel and lack of hosting facilities makes it difficult for some fans to make the weekly treks outside of the area.

“When people from the community or from the schools show up it means a lot,” Merrick said. “I know we’ve had principals come out in the past and the kids talked about it for weeks. That motivates them.”