MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown High and University swimming teams celebrated Senior Night Wednesday at the Mylan Park Aquatic Center, in what was a pool-party version of Mohawk Bowl.
UHS is coached by Nicolle Davis, while the Mohigans are coached by Eric Householder. Both are in their first season as the head coach.
Davis was an assistant coach at UHS for five years before assuming command this season, so she’s quite familiar with her stable of seniors — Aubrey Wood, Anissa Molinar, Francesca Cain, Zach Ribas, Frank McCutchan and Evan Large.
“We’ve certainly been through a lot together,” she smiled. “All the pandemic uncertainty and limitations set us back a bit last year, but the kids persevered and have really improved as a team heading into this season.”
As the only coach, Davis has leaned on her seniors for both leadership and some out-of-pool coaching as well.
“All the seniors have been great in supporting and helping everyone,” Davis said.
For Householder, a strong and deep group of seniors (Lexi Swierkos, Grace Hickman, Irina Stanescu, Kate Blosser, Pranav Saravanan, Eric Martinez-Mapp, and son Preston) are looking to make some serious noise at the state meet at season’s end, and he’s more than happy to lend a hand administratively.
“My background is as a swim parent to Preston and my daughters (MHS sophomore Delaney and middle-schooler Avery), so they’ve been the ones who got our family in the pool, starting in the Morgantown United Aquatic Club when they were young. They loved it right away, and ever since, so when the position opened up at MHS, it seemed like a good fit to step in and try to keep the program going and growing.
“Our assistant coach J.C. Pettit is the technical guru,” he continued, “and the seniors always do a great job of keeping everyone focused and up to speed with what it takes to be successful in the pool. We have a solid, veteran team, especially the girls, who are returning seven swimmers from last year’s team that placed second in the state last year. We have high expectations, and we hope to bring a title back to MHS.”
