Swimmers to dive into season at Mega Meet

~ Central will host the season-opening event today

Area swimming and diving enthusiasts will get their first look at area high school boys teams in action when Central hosts the Cape Central Mega Meet today at the Central Junior High School pool.

Action gets underway at 4 p.m. at the pool, affectionately known as "The Bubble," with teams from Central, Jackson, Notre Dame and Saxony Lutheran competing.

Central will field a team of 13 boys, including junior Christian Retter, who was a member of the Tigers' 200-yard relay team that placed 27th at last fall's state meet.

Senior Colin Keele enters his fourth year of competition, while fellow senior Jon Upchurch will compete in both swimming and diving events for the Tigers.

Other team members for Central are juniors Zach Rhodes, Alex Gentile and Raleigh Davis; sophomores John Young, Tin Huey, Lawson Berry, Reed Dixon and Davis Deimund; and freshman Jamonté Rush.

Berry will also compete in diving.

"We lost a big group of seniors, but having 13 swimmers on the team is pretty good," Central coach Dayna Powell said.

Notre Dame has 13 swimmers returning from last year's team, including seniors Zach Smith, Jackson Voss, Ethan Probst and Caleb Heisserer, and junior Ben Tlapek, each of whom qualified for last year's state meet.

Others returning are senior Matthew Parker and Sam Shaw, junior Joe Matthews and sophomores Bill Kapp, Nate Stovall, Mitchell Heisserer, Lucas Hurley and David Carmen. Newcomers are senior Andrew Hobeck; sophomores Grant Powderly and Nix Coppock; and freshmen Bruce Nguyen, Dylan King, Dillon Landewee and Justin Spinner.

"We are excited," said coach Jameson Kuper, an assistant last year under his father, Lenny Kuper, before taking over the program this fall. "We lost a lot of great seniors last year, but we have a lot of experience returning in our senior and junior classes. And we have a lot of fast newcomers in the freshman class."

Jackson coach Carole Baugh welcomes back eight returning swimmers, including junior Austin Hobbs, a state qualifier in 2012 in the 500 freestyle.

Other returning swimmers are senior Mac Rinacke; juniors Rex McNeely, Brandon Price and Christian Leimbach; and sophomores Alex Snyder and Trevor Smith.

New to the program are junior Michael Fischer and freshmen Jack Gard, Mathew Snyder, Michael Smith, Zach Flath and John Singleton.

"I feel really good about them," Baugh said. "The team is really upbeat and they've been working well together."

Baugh certainly will miss graduated senior Kristian Troxel, a four-year state qualifier who was a consistent performer for the Indians.

"I think Austin Hobbs has really come up to the plate and taken over that role," Baugh said.

Saxony Lutheran has just two swimmers competing this season -- junior Sam Unger and freshman Ian Cameron. Unger, though, may miss today's meet as he's recovering from complications from a stress fracture he suffered in his hip during last year's cross country season.