New Palestine head coach Chris Kingery talks to his relay team during last year’s sectional swimming and diving meet at New Palestine High School.
Tom Russo | The Daily Reporter
NEW PALESTINE — Runner-up at the New Palestine Sectional and fourth-place finishers at the Hoosier Heritage Conference Meet, the 2022-23 New Palestine boys swimming and diving team hopes to remain in the upper echelon among sectional and conference opponents.
To do so, the Dragons will do it with a youthful team that has only one senior, Chase Martin.
They’re young, but talented and coach Chris Kingery believes his team has the ability to make waves again in 2022-23.
“The talent is still there,” Kingery said, noting his team graduated just three seniors. “The work ethic is still there. We’re working to get even better. We have goals and we’re trying to achieve those goals.”
Kingery said they would like to repeat as champions of the Warren Central Invitational and keep pace with county and conference rival Mt. Vernon, the two-time defending champion at both the conference and sectional meets.
“We’d like to try and get a sectional and get some swimmers to state,” Kingery added. “We want to go down and enjoy the experience and show we belong there.”
The Dragons have 22 on their roster, which includes a talented group of freshmen and sophomores, but he expects the leadership to come from his smaller group of senior and juniors.
Along with Martin being the only senior, Aidan Kingery, Liam Fuller and Hunter Chaffee are the program’s only juniors.
“(Chase has) been a solid leader all year, taking kids under his wing and pulling them to the front,” coach Kingery said. “Aidan, Liam, all of them are working and trying to become leaders in the water.”
The coach thinks the best opportunity to get to the state meet may come from a combination of his swimmers, along with other keys.
“(If) illness and the injury-bug stay away we have some candidates in relays,” coach Kingery said of possible qualifiers for the state meet. He added that they’ll use much of the regular season to find the right combinations for the relay teams, to get them prepared for conference and sectional competition, with the hope of advancing an extra week to the state meet at the historic IU Natatorium in downtown Indianapolis.
“A lot of them have been swimming club and are multi-talented,” he added. “(We’ll be working on) where we can get the best times and our best opportunities to get down there.
“A key will be staying positive, and not getting down during the long weeks, around Thanksgiving, and Christmas. They need to stay positive, stay focused, and stay on a mission of where they want to be.”
New Palestine opens the season, at home, on Nov. 29 against Hancock County and conference/sectional rival Greenfield-Central.
