By Bill Alden

Although the Hun School boys’ swimming team opened the season by losing 88-76 to the George School (Pa.) last month, the program is maintaining its upward trend.

“It was a pretty close meet, they are continuing to improve,” said Hun head coach Joan Nuse reflecting on the December 10 competition.

“We have kids in the first meet of the year who were swimming times that were better than their time in the previous year. We have some freshmen who came in and made an impact right off the bat. That is great and really sets things up for the season.”

Nuse is looking for a great season from senior standout Josh Nguyen. “Josh came in the first meet and goes out and won both the 50 and the 100 free,” said Nuse.

“He bettered his time from his best time ever right off the bat and he is not a club swimmer. That is just him putting in the effort in practice. He is one of our captains and he has been doing a great job of helping out everyone. He is definitely a sprinter but he can do backstroke.”

The other captain, senior Andrew Petty, has helped set an upbeat tone around the team.

“Andrew puts in the effort and he brings so much enthusiasm on the deck,” said Nuse. “He is a kid who will be out there cheering for everybody. He is very loud, that is very helpful. He leads our cheers, he can out yell the entire team.”

Hun has been getting good efforts from two other key veterans, sophomore Gabe Huang and junior George Bailey.

“Gabe and George have both done really well for us,” said Nuse. “They are both setting high goals for themselves and putting in the effort to try to reach them. They are kids that we can count on.”

A quartet of juniors, Pedro Blauth Poli, Jack Hartmann, Trent Pinchot, and Colm Lovett along with sophomore Jayden Nguyen are doing some good things for the Raiders.

“Pedro has also been contributing to the team,” said Nuse. “Another kid who has been a pleasant surprise is Jack; this is his first year swimming for us. He should definitely keep getting better, he likes the fly so that is always a win. Jayden is a good swimmer for us. Trent just came out as a junior and has been a pleasant surprise. Colm dropped time from last year in the first meet. It is just nice to see all of these kids coming out and just continuing to improve.”

Freshmen Luke Cura and Nick Danko have already proven that they can be very good swimmers for the program.

“Luke and Nick are both very versatile for us so we are able to use them in a lot of events,” said Nuse.

“Luke likes distance so that is wonderful; he is really solid too. I may use him in the individual medley sometimes just to change it up so kids don’t have to do the same things all of the time. Nick stepped up for us and did a nice job swimming fly in our first meet and he is not a flyer.”

With the Mercer County championship meet on the horizon, Nuse believes her boy swimmers are poised to step up at that competition.

“We have a shot of some kids making finals this year,” said Nuse, referring to the county meet which is slated for January 30-February 1.

“Last year for the boys we only had a couple of relays make finals. It would be really exciting to have some individuals make it as well. I think any of those kids have a good shot at it.”

With more and more kids having joined the group over the years, Nuse sees an exciting future for her boys’ program.

“Even though we have some seniors who we have been counting on for four years, it is nice to have these young people coming in,” said Nuse, whose team resumes action by swimming at the Blair Academy on January 8.

“They have great attitudes. To me, it is so amazing to see the growth. We used to not even fill up a bus and now we need two.”