By John Raffel
Coach Chilly Smith expects to have another unique season with his Midland Dow girl’s swimming in the Saginaw Valley Conference.
Last year, Dow was Tri City Champions, Saginaw Valley champions for the 13th straight year and eighth at the Division II state final.
“We graduated three-year captain Chelsea Fenton, distance swimmer and one of the best relay swimmers we have ever had at Dow,” Smith said. “She’s swimming at SVSU.”
Smith mentioned some of the returning swimmers such as Claire Newman defending state champion in the 50 and 100 free and named swimmer of the year in Division II. Plus there’s senior and captain Sasha Konovalenko, an All-Stater in the 100 back, senior and captain Anna Jensen, who swims butterfly, back and sprint freestyle; and senior Ella Roberson newcomer and freshmen, who swims the 200 and 500 free.
“Our number one goal is to have fun and stay healthy,”If this happens we hope to have great swims at the state finals. We hope to have a state team of 10 girls,” Smith said. “We have to stay healthy and have fun. We look forward to defending or titles at Tri Cities and the Saginaw Valley Championships. As of now, Grand Blanc looks to be the sight favorites. At the state level we look to improve on our finish from last year.”
Freestyle will be team strengths, Smith said.