Port swimmers to rely on experience

The Port Washington High School girls’ swim team continues to increase its depth with 12 returning letter-winners.
The only welcome issue is the high interest in swimming during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It’s not easy to keep 35 girls socially distant, but they know it’s important to follow the rules so we can keep swimming,” co-coach Dani Peiffer said.
Returning letter-winners include Erin Grisar, Caroline Hadacek, Olivia Heinecke, Sarah Howell, Emma Huber, Abbey Lotz, Taylor Peiffer, Eva Perez, Stephanie Schlessinger, Audyn Setzer, Leah Sheriff and Josie Tetzlaff.
This year’s captains are seniors Grisar, Howell and Hadacek.
Top point earners and their specialties are Tetzlaff (100-meter backstroke, 100 butterfly) and Lotz (200 and 500 freestyles).
Grisar (100 butterfly and 500 freestyle), Huber (50 and 100 freestyle), Setzer (500 freestyle) and Hadacek (100 breaststroke) are also expected to contribute, Peiffer said.
“It’s early in the season and there are a lot of girls with great potential that we expect to be major contributors as the season progresses,” she said.
This season’s goals are to have some of the newer swimmers — the Pirates have nine freshmen — to fill in some of the gaps in the team’s less-popular events such as the 200 individual medley.
This team isn’t as new to the pool as in the recent past.
“For the past two years, we were a very young, inexperienced team. This year, we are tipping the scales with two-thirds of our team being experienced swimmers. This is very exciting for our team as we are growing not only in numbers but in depth,” Peiffer said.
“Improving depth in all the events will give us the best shot at winning a meet this year. We are up against a lot of large schools with combined swim programs which makes it very difficult to outscore them, but we keep closing the gap in scores each year.”
Increased experience includes the coaches, who all have a daughter on the team. Peiffer and Laura Grisar are in their third seasons and Erika McConahy is in her fifth.
The team’s strength, Peiffer said, is its positive attitude and bonding.
“They like to work hard but also have fun, and in my opinion, that is key to performing well,” she said.
“This year will obviously be very different than previous years but the girls are determined to make the best of it. We are not dwelling on what we can’t do, we are focusing on what we can do.”
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, practice is done in groups of eight swimmers who rotate between dry land, technique and pool workout stations.
Lanes are limited to two swimmers each with rests at opposite ends of the pool.
All invites are canceled and meets are following social distancing guidelines.
The team includes two divers, Stephanie Schlessinger and Annastasia Wischki.
The Pirates were to open the season at North Shore Conference foe Nicolet on Tuesday, Sept. 1, and host nonconference opponent Kohler at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 8.