By Chris Bennett
Correspondent
A deep Elkhorn Area High School boys swimming team finished second last season in the Southern Lakes Conference.
Hopefully, the Elks can make the jump this season and win the SLC.
“Making that jump would require a little more depth in our team, and making our top relays a little faster,” Elks coach Jamie Richardson said. “Hopefully, we can do that this year.”
The Elks officially opened practice for the 2016-17 season on Monday. Richardson said the Elks get just seven practices before opening the season Nov. 22 with a non-conference dual meet at home against Waukesha West.
Richardson also coaches the girls, and there is no break between the recently concluded girls season and the emerging boys season. Girls swimming is among one of the later starting fall sports, and also ends among the latest. The boys start earliest of the winter sports and also have one of the earlier endings.
“It’s kind of a whirlwind, wrapping up one season and getting ready for the next one,” Richardson said. “You’ve got to be organized and ready to transition.”
Making her job a touch easier this season is the number of boys who swam in the offseason. Richardson said eight boys, one of the higher totals in years, swam in the offseason for Elkhorn.
“Even if it’s a couple of weeks before the season swimming on a club team, that puts us ahead of all the other teams coming in,” Richardson said. “That’s huge, as far as conditioning goes.”
Brevin Kruse, Dakota Biefeld, Logan Radlein, Derek Gauger, Spencer Ingersoll, Alex Johnson, Ben Davis and Noah Barkes are among the key returnees for the Elks this season.
Richardson said numbers are good – the Elks are at 26 – and said a group of young freshmen might be poised to help make an impact.
Badger is the defending SLC champion.
