EHS opens up 2019 swimming season

The Enterprise High School swim team got the 2019 season off to a start competing at the Speedo Beach Blast at Panama City Beach on Sept. 20.

The Wildcat swimmers are competing under a new head coach this season in Sarah Thorn after former coach Nikki Wood departed from EHS.

Thorn – who is a former high school swimmer – spent 2018 as a volunteer assistant at EHS and also spent time as an assistant coach in Gulf Shores in the past.

“The biggest goal for me (as coach) is to keep these kids on the trajectory that they’ve been on,” Thorn said. “We had a fantastic coach – Nikki Wood – last year and I got the chance to coach with her.

“She’s a former college swimmer and she really got these kids up to speed on how to practice and how to compete at this level.”

Thorn said that EHS has a number of high-level swimmers on the 2018 team with seniors Maggie Coyle, Roshan Dahale and Alison Best serving as team captains.

“Maggie and Alison were team captains last year and are continuing that this year, while Roshan was a captain at his previous school,” Thorn said. “They’ve really taken charge of the team and are all great leaders. They’re very encouraging to our younger swimmers and their leadership has been really awesome getting this team hyped up and ready for the season.”

Another swimmer to keep an eye on is Adriana Hallbert, who qualified and competed in a national swim meet over the summer.

“She is a phenomenal swimmer,” Thorn said of Hallbert. “We have several others that are really great and I’m really excited for this team.”

At the Speedo Beach Blast, a number of EHS swimmers improved their times in several events, and some of which did so by several seconds.

David Best competed in the 200-meter freestyle, 500-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle and 100-meter butterfly and improved on his time in each event, including a 20.56-second improvement in the 500-meter freestyle.

Huk Blunt improved his time in the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter backstroke and 100-meter freestyle, while Hunter Coyle improved in the 100-meter freestyle.

Jolee Fernandez improved in the 200-meter butterfly and Ellie Flaig had a 20.07-second improvement in the 200-meter individual medley. Flaig also made improvements in the 200-meter freestyle, 100-meter breaststroke, 50-meter breaststroke, 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle, 200-meter breaststroke and 100-meter freestyle.

One of the Wildcat leaders, Hallbert, also improved on a number of her times including a 12.51-second improvement in both the 200-meter individual medley and the 100-meter butterfly. Hallbert also made improvements in the 200-meter freestyle, 100-meter backstroke, 100-meter breaststroke and 100-meter freestyle.

Madison Hill made a 19.55-second improvement in the 200-meter freestyle and also improved her 100-meter butterfly time, while Mya Hill improved her time in the 100-meter butterfly.

Hannah Hokanson improved in the 100-meter backstroke, 100-meter butterfly, 100-meter freestyle, 50-meter backstroke and the 100-meter individual medley.

Hailee Kokoszka made the biggest improvement of the meet with a 38.47-second improvement in the 200-meter freestyle. She also improved her times in the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter individual medley and 100-meter freestyle.

Elijah Nabarette improved on his times in the 100-meter backstroke, 100-meter breaststroke and 100-meter butterfly, while Alexis Pelkey improved by 17.87 seconds in the 100-meter breaststroke.

EHS will travel to Mobile to compete in the CMSA Vance Rose Meet on Oct. 4 and then head to Brewton to compete against T.R. Miller on Oct. 12.

On Oct. 25, Enterprise will travel to Auburn to compete in the War Eagle Invite before facing off against Dothan in Dothan at a meet on Nov. 2.

The EHS swim team will be selling tickets for a GetFit Nutrition fundraiser on Sept. 28 from 1 to 5 p.m. and will also hold fundraisers for the swim team every second Monday of each month at Marco’s Pizza in Enterprise.