The dogs started the swimming season off in the Brownsburg Thanksgiving Invitations. The girls were led by senior Mary McCluskey who won the 50 and 100 freestyle along with being on the winning 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay teams. The boys side was led by junior Gavin Coggan who also won multiple events and was on the relay teams.
The Bulldog swim team is coming off a great 2022-2023 season where they won their tenth consecutive Sectional Championship. However, new coach Matt Elliot has bigger expectations as he wants the team to “challenge themselves and pushing themselves more than they have in the past,” in order to compete at the State meet.
Despite being a first-year coach, Elliot is already familiar with many of the upperclassmen as he was in charge of the middle school program here three years leading to the upperclassmen having a pretty easy transition. The more difficult transition for them was not having a pool here because the area is under construction, leading to them having to go to Pike for practices. However, Coach Elliot believes they will be able to overcome this problem.
At the Sectional level, Elliot urges the team to not get too comfortable, as with ten consecutive Sectional Championships, they might get complacent. Instead, Elliot wants them to “go in and compete, and treat it as just the beginning of the state series” so that they can “use it as a steppingstone to that State meet.”
Elliot is particularly focused on any meets they have against any of their conference opponents as he says that they “are a part of the best swim conference in the state.” This could give them a good way to see how they are going to look in the post season.
Elliot is excited for the upcoming season and what it could bring to the program as he thinks this group can “overcome adversity and become stronger.”
