Greenfield-Central’s Mason Stroughton swims the breaststroke leg of the 200-yard Individual Medley.
Mike Brown | For The Daily Reporter
GREENFIELD — There’s a lot of youth and newness to the Greenfield-Central boys swimming and diving team.
Of the 19 swimmers and divers on the roster, there are 11 sophomores and four freshmen.
There is also a new head coach.
Ben Felver begins his first season with the team after being a part of the Greenfield club and junior high programs since 2015.
“I’ve been working with the club, a lot of these guys have been through my group,” Felver said. “I’ve had them in club, and as they went through junior high, so there hasn’t been an adjustment in that way. We know each other already. I’ve coached them in the past, or most of them in some capacity. It’s just been getting back to it.”
The team has just one senior, Keegan Schmitt and only four juniors.
The top returning swimmer is junior Colten Mayberry. He was second in last year’s New Palestine Sectional 200-yard individual medley and seventh in the 100 breaststroke.
Sophomore Gabe Hall leads the divers. He was a regional qualifier after finishing third in the sectional.
Also back with some ‘A’ Final sectional experience is sophomore Aiden Michael. He was seventh in the 100 freestyle and sixth in the 100 backstroke.
Michael and Mayberry were both part of last year’s third-place 400 freestyle relay team.
Jon Grimes is another one of the top returnees with some experience.
Felver added he has a pair of promising freshmen on the roster, Isaac Johnson and Tyler Mullen. Both have had success at the club and junior high levels. Johnson is a sprint freestyler and backstroke swimmer. Mullen is a distance freestyler.
“Numbers are really good and that is encouraging,” Felver said. “We’re really young. We have only three underclassmen returning with any high school experience. There’s going to be some bumps along the way as a result of that youth. But, one of the things we’ve been talking about as a team is really working on building and improving the depth, getting to the point to where we have got three people at sectional that are scoring and three people at (the Hoosier Heritage Conference meet) that are scoring in every event. That’s one of our big focuses this year.”
The biggest loss from last year’s team is the graduation of standout diver and swimmer Alex Jahrsdoerfer. He was a regional champion a year ago and finished 12th in the state.
The season begins Nov. 21 with a meet at Franklin Central.
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2023-24 Greenfield-Central boys swimming schedule
Date;Opponent;Time
Nov. 21;at Franklin Central;6 p.m.
Nov. 28;vs. New Palestine;5:30 p.m.
Dec. 2;at Hall of Fame Classic (Franklin);10 a.m.
Dec. 7;at Pendleton Heights;5:30 p.m.
Dec. 11;vs. Mt. Vernon;5:30 p.m.
Jan. 2;at Greenwood;6 p.m.
Jan. 13;at HHC Diving (New Palestine);9 a.m.
Jan. 13;at HHC Swimming (New Palestine);1 p.m.
Jan. 15;vs. Yorktown;6 p.m.
Jan. 18;at Shelbyville;5:30 p.m.
Jan. 19;at Warrior Diving Invitational (Warren Central);6 p.m.
