New Palestine’s Olivia Melangton competes in the 500-meter freestyle race during last year’s sectional final at New Palestine High School.
Tom Russo | The Daily Reporter
NEW PALESTINE — The regular season will be a trial period for the New Palestine girls swimming and diving team.
Coach Chris Kingery, in his second season as the program’s head coach, will use much of the dual meet season trying to find the right spots for his talented — and large — group as they work to get swimmers, as individuals or in relays, qualified beyond the sectional meet, which is held at the New Palestine Natatorium in February.
“We’re going to try to go out and swim different events for each meet and see where we can get the best times and score the most points in our big meets,” Kingery said.
The team, which placed fourth at the Hoosier Heritage Conference Meet and sixth at the New Palestine Sectional, has more than doubled in numbers from a year ago. The 14-member squad from 2021-22 is now 30-strong for 2022-23.
“It’s different, but a good different,” Kingery said. “It’ll be good to mix up the lineup and see where we can put people and find the best times and best points for our conference and sectional meets.”
The roster includes a veteran senior contingent and a few other returnees Kingery plans to rely on.
Katelyn Trimpe, Kyleigh Turner, Rachel Wright, Olivia Melangton, Claire Lake and diver Kayla Bain are six seniors expected to be some of the team’s top contributors.
“We’re sitting pretty deep on our seniors,” the coach said. “They’re strong leaders and taking the helm for everything we’re trying to build as a program.”
A year ago, Trimpe had the team’s best finish in sectional competition, placing third in the 500-yard freestyle. She won the B Final in the 200 freestyle and was part of the group that placed fourth in the 200 freestyle relay, joined by Turner, junior Sullie Leavell and sophomore Chloe Siler.
Another strong junior swimmer with experience is Adrianna Huston, who had a third-place finish in the 200 freestyle sectional race during the 2020-21 season and has also been a key part of Dragon relays.
Kingery said Rachel Hamilton is another swimmer with potential to score points in the bigger meets.
“We want to get better every day,” Kingery added “We set the bench mark last year and we want to improve from where we started last season.
“It’s a talented, mixed bag of every stroke and they’re willing to go the extra mile to help us all out.”
The girls team is scheduled to open its season at home today with a 5:30 p.m. tri-meet with Lawrence Central and Shelbyville. They will travel to Greenwood Thursday for a tri-meet that will include Roncalli.
