September 07, 2024
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Girls swimming: L-P co-op to rely on three senior leaders, young talent

Team has swimmers from L-P, Ottawa, Serena, Henry

By Kevin Chlum
Evvie Jepsen swims Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, during the 100 butterfly of the L-P Pentathlon.

Evvie Jepsen swims Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, during the 100 butterfly of the L-P Pentathlon. (Tom Sistak)

The La Salle-Peru co-op swimming team has a young roster for the 2023 season with 13 underclassmen on the 21-member roster.

Leading the squad are three veteran seniors in Evelyn Clayton, Kailey Goetsch, who are from Ottawa, and Clara Guglielmetti, who is an L-P student

“It’s a pretty young team,” L-P coach Rob McNally said. “We’ve got three seniors in Clara Guglielmetti, Evelyn Clayton and Kailey Goetsch. Kailey is our captain this year. They’ll be able to provide some leadership. I do have a very talented freshman class this year to go along with good sophomores.”

Guglielmetti is a sprint freestyler who will compete in the 50-yard and 100 freestyle. Clayton also will swim the freestyle. Goetsch will swim in those events, but McNally said “she’s a little more versatile,” so she’ll also compete in the breaststroke.

Two freshmen who are expected to be key contributors are Ottawa’s Quinn Wilkerson and Henry-Senachwine’s Sam Naumann, who also runs cross country for Henry-Midland.

“They are two really, really good freshmen,” McNally said.

Other freshmen who will make an impact are L-P’s Emma Short, Anna Weitl and Clara Weitl and Serena’s Finley Jobst.

Mikenna DeSpain swims the 50 freestyle Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, at La Salle-Peru.

Mikenna DeSpain swims the 50 freestyle Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, at La Salle-Peru. (Tom Sistak)

With the returning seniors along with the talented freshmen swimmers, McNally said he hopes to be able to put together strong 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays.

“My goals are the same as every year,” McNally said. “We want to finish higher at the sectional meet. The mentality at dual meets should be beating your opponent to the wall. Times don’t really count in swimming until you get to the sectional meet with regards to whether or not you go to state, which is ultimately everybody’s goal.

“My goal is always to get swimmers to state. I’m hoping this year we’ll be able to do that. But we have a young team and I have to find out more about where they’re at. They have really, really good technique. They have really good attitudes. I think they all need to get a little bit stronger. But we’ve got 15 weeks to do it and hopefully by the end of that time, we’ve made some big improvements to get them where they need to be.”

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