The regular season for the Lancaster High School boys and girls swim teams ends this week and post-season meets will begin next week.
The Region 1A/2A meet will be held Thursday, February 12, at Swim RVA in Chesterfield. All of Lancaster’s swimmers will advance to swim in the regional meet, according to LHS coach Mirko Arbutina, who leads the team for a second season.
Lancaster has had three meets this season and its team has nearly doubled in size, from six last year to 11 this season—seven swimmers on the girls team and four on the boys.
“It’s a young team and I’m a young coach so we’re growing together,” said Arbutina. “We have almost doubled the team size this year and if that continues, we have a chance of not only placing in regular meets but in the region and state level.”
The increased numbers have also allowed the team to “branch out from the races we were limited to last year,” said Arbutina. LHS now competes in more relays while mainly competing in freestyle events.
The team has added several more races with sophomore twins Alex and Miller White swimming the 200 meter freestyle in the boys meets and sophomore Kelsey Bishoff swimming the 200 freestyle in girls meets.
He planned to have his swimmers also compete in medley relays in a meet that was canceled because of weather last week. “We’re definitely 100% doing it next year,” said Arbutina. “We’ve already designated who’s racing what.”
He’s hoping to have freshman Suzie Geier racing in the 500 meter freestyle in this week’s meet. “It’s a distance event and she’s been pushing herself to do it,” said Arbutina.
His plan also is to have sophomore Addie George compete in more breaststroke races next season.
“We have some swimmers who can really branch out and do some different strokes,” said Arbutina.
Freshman Sarajane Collier may compete in her first meet of the season this week. “She’s a very new swimmer,” said Arbutina. “It’s been incredible to see her get to the level to be able to compete.”
The girls team also includes sophomores McKenzie Pittman and Lexi VerMeer and JV swimmer eighth grader Alice Magerko.
The boys team also includes sophomore Logan Brent and freshman Logan Oren.
The Class 1/2 combined meet will be February 18 at SwimRVA with the top five relay teams and top five individuals in each race from the regional meet advancing.
