Swim Team Enters New Waters

by Braden Onesti ’23

Recent years have brought about some of the statistically best performances the Sanford Swimming program has ever seen. This year’s boys’ team earned a record of 8-2, representing an evolution in Sanford’s swimmers since just a few years ago when they typically had losing seasons. On top of that, the boys brought home the Delaware Independent School Conference championship, better known as the DISC, for the first time in the program’s history. Once the swim season came to a close, they were named the third-best team in the state of Delaware.

Prior to the beginning of the season, there was much uncertainty in and around the team. The swimmers had to adapt to an entirely new coaching staff, led by Lucy Benson and Tiffany Stanchek. Senior boys’ swimmer Kunal Viswanathan commented on the adjustment process:

“It was different, [it] took a little bit of getting used to for everyone, not just me.” He added that “everyone has their own system and [the] way they teach, what they expect from everyone else as coaches to swimmers [and] swimmers to coaches,” but, after the team adapted to the new strategies, they would go on to achieve record-breaking success. For example, in one of the season’s medley relay events, swimmers Michael “M.J.” Hoban and Brady Bollman surpassed Sanford’s record time. Hoban continued to be a key contributor to the team later on in the season, winning the DISC championship’s 50-meter freestyle event and helping rack up just enough points for Sanford to win it all.

Benson felt that establishing trust between swimmers and coaches was crucial to the team’s success.

“Coming in as a new coach, it takes time,” she said, “There’s a level of trust that you have to develop… what I always told the kids is how appreciative we were as coaches that they were putting this trust into us.”

Benson, despite this adversity, adamantly believed that the team had the potential to have an excellent season.

“We told them [if] you give us this chance, you believe in our program, and you represent yourselves well, we believe good things could happen,” she said. Benson’s plan came to fruition for the team, as they achieved a status never before seen in Sanford’s swimming program.

Both Benson and Viswanathan were confident that this season would not go down as a one-hit wonder, and that Sanford’s success in swimming will continue in the years to come. Viswanathan has faith in his younger teammates and feels a strong sense of camaraderie within the team:

“As far as my experience this year, I don’t think anyone doesn’t want to do swim[ing], so I think people will continue to do swim[ing] and keep it going.”

Viswanathan spoke very highly of the underclassmen on the team.

“I think our younger swimmers are very strong swimmers, so they’ll continue to be very good.”