Season Preview: Boys & Girls Swim Face Martha's Vineyard On Thursday

Last winter, the Whaler swim team had plenty of female swimmers but struggled with numbers on the male side. While the boys will need to replace Jake Johnson, a senior captain last year, they will have 15 male swimmers this year – roughly double of what was at head coach Dylan Jones disposal last winter as he pieced together his relay teams and decided how to best attack each meet to put his team in a position to earn victories.

"With the boys, it's great to have the numbers but now it's about figuring out what I can do with them," Jones, who is entering his third season as head coach, said. "Some of them are less experienced with competitive swimming, but that's okay. That's what's fun about coaching and why we're here. To get them up to speed.”

Some of the returners are juniors Eli MacIver and Andrick Mooney, who are multi-sport athletes and guys that Jones feels will only get better moving forward with their athletic abilities.

"Another great thing is we aren't graduating anyone this year," Jones said. "So we got numbers and no one is leaving after this season. So this year is whatever it is. Hopefully we can build something, and then retain everyone, and then keep on building something."

On the girls side, there is a lot more experience including a strong senior class led by Myah Johnson and Sara Dussault. Jones said the strong senior class will be supported by some younger female swimmers and feels their leadership will rub off positively on some of the girls new to the team.

"Some of our eighth-grade girls have been doing club swim for years too," Jones added. "I don't want to speak for them, but it looks like swimming might be their main sport.”

The team has also been doing dry land training to help with their strength and endurance. Jones feels like it will be a valuable addition to their training regimen moving forward that will help them build their swims as the winter progresses.

"I didn't do it much my first year, so this is the second year in a row," Jones said. "So that's another thing we're going to keep building off of. So we are sort of just getting all of the pieces in place, and now in year three all the pieces are kind of just more familiar.”

Nantucket begins their season on Thursday, December 11^th on the road against Martha’s Vineyard at 3 p.m. You can view their full swim schedule here.