OCEAN CITY — When you have a team that lost a dozen seniors from the season before, it doesn’t help when half of those left are out sick on a meet day.
That was the case for the Red Raider girls swimmers when they hosted Mainland Regional High School’s team Dec. 16 at the Ocean City Aquatic and Fitness Center.
“We lost 12 seniors,” head coach Ian Keyser said. “We had school record holders, we had depth. So, definitely it’s an adjustment losing some of that senior leadership and talent.”
This season’s team features just 24 swimmers. “It’s the smallest team we’ve ever had,” Keyser said.
On Dec. 16, he only was able to put 12 girls in the water because the other 12 were out sick. In a number of events, he had to leave a lane unfilled during the competition.
On the bright side, Keyser has a big freshman class and only three seniors.
With everything, he remains “very happy with the way we’ve started out this year. We have a good group of freshmen, a good group of returning swimmers. We’ve had some best times already through three meets and we had a great showing against Egg Harbor Township,” he said before last week’s meet against Mainland.
EHT regularly puts up some of the toughest teams in the Cape-Atlantic League. The Ocean City High School girls lost narrowly, 89-81, on Dec. 9.
“Our young swimmers really stepped up and swam well. I felt they really responded well,” Keyser said as the team kept it close more than halfway through. “They got us in the end in a couple of events, and that made the difference, but any time you’re competing with EHT, I think it’s a great sign, especially this early in the season. So I was really happy even in a loss for a young team like that to come out firing like we did.”
The Red Raider girls opened the season with a 134-35 win over Atlantic City and rebounded from the EHT meet with a 127-39 victory over Absegami.
His depleted squad fell to the Mustangs 109-61. The girls won only one event, the 400-meter freestyle relay featuring Melanie Gannon, Maggie Kelly, Cori Hamburger and Addie Robbins.
Two of his experienced swimmers who will help lead the team this season are junior Holly Aiken and sophomore Kate Elder, who competed on relays at the Meet of Champions. Aiken was also on the 200-meter medley relay team that set a school record.
Aiken will be swimming butterfly and the individual medley and Elder swims relays and the 200 and 400 freestyle.
Sophomore Hope Robbins won the 100 breaststroke in the EHT meet and is pretty close to qualifying for the Meet of Champions already. “I think she’s going to take a big step forward for us this year,” Keyser said.
Her older sister, junior Addie Robbins, “already started this season faster than she ended last season, which is great for us.”
The coaches are also excited about freshman Melanie Gannon, who was second to Ady Elko, “who’s one of the best swimmers in the state,” in the EHT meet.
“She’s someone we’re really looking to have a big role with our team this year,” Keyser said of Gannon.
He said with such a young team, they haven’t set a lot of playoff goals.
“We want to get better. I think that’s what we’re trying to preach to our kids this year,” he said, comparing their performances this season to how they performed at meets last season.
“Let’s just keep getting better each week. I think that’s the overall goal with such a young team and so far, they’ve responded very well and it’s just getting better each day,” Keyser said.
On Friday the girls wrapped up the 2025 part of the season at Southern Regional High School, beating the rams 109-67 with more of the team healthy.
Now they’re off until 4 p.m. Jan. 7 when they host a strong Our Lady of Mercy Academy team. Two days later they’ll host Lenape. The girls will have their third meet in six days, traveling to Oakcrest on Jan. 12, then they’re back home at the Aquatic and Fitness Center against Middle Township on Jan. 16 and Clearview Regional on Jan. 22.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
