Last fall, the Cloquet-Esko-Carlton girls swim team sent eight swimmers to the state meet. Expectations were high for good numbers when the team got together for the first time over a week ago, but that excitement was put on a hold when only 17 swimmers came out for varsity and junior varsity action.
"I was definitely surprised," mentioned coach Tone Coughlin. "We had two girls move away and five or six others who just decided not to come out for the team."
Ana Vang, a state competitor, graduated, and Chelsea and Caitlyn Murn moved with their family to Idaho. Those departures already left a void, but others were unexpected.
"We can't dwell on the past and we can only deal with what we have," said Coughlin. "We have to worry about maximizing the potential of the girls who are willing to take the time and the effort to be here for this team."
Compounding the difficulty is that CEC was moved out of Section 4A into Section 5A with some pretty stiff competition. Included in 5A are Monticello, Big Lake and Becker, schools that are widely known to be tough in state swimming circles.
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"All three of those schools have swimmers coming back who finished in the top 10 in their events," recalled Coughlin. "When you add in Ogilvie, Princeton, Milaca and Chisago Lakes along with the northern schools, it is going to be tough."
Look for Grace Moores and Linda Tierney to be the team leaders this year as both swam on two relay teams that advanced to state. Moores also qualified in the 200 and 500 freestyle races.
"They will have to be very strong for us," commented Coughlin of the pair. "We also look for Kayla Cresap to be a strong swimmer as she was an alternate on the relay teams at state."
Another senior, Amanda Vuicich, is a solid all-around swimmer who will need to be strong if the team is going to have any chance in dual meets this year.
"We'll also need some eighth-graders to step up and swim at the varsity level," stated Coughlin. "We do have a lot of eighth-graders out so we'll see them step into larger roles."
Despite low turnout, the team has already shown signs of being ahead of the game from a year ago.
"We did some time trials and already the girls who swam last year are swimming better times than they did then," said Coughlin. "The girls are bonding together very nicely and are swimming very hard in practice."
