Trio leads FR swimmers

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians had five swimmers reach district last season.
Three of them return.
“I think team-wise we are small but we are really strong,” said Fort Recovery High School swim coach Mindy Bubp, whose team opens its season in the Celina Sprints on Saturday.
Senior Cori Stone leads the returning swimmers, coming off a year during which she broke two of her own school records. She did so in the 200-yard freestyle in 2 minutes, 3.53 seconds, to finish ninth at the district meet. She also set a new mark in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:02.7. She was 11th.
She also had her hand in two district-qualifying relay teams, the 200 medley and 400 freestyle. The medley relay squad (Sophie Timmerman, Alexis Bubp, Stone and her sister Carley) was 13th at district. The Stone sisters, Bubp and Olivia Acheson were 16th in the 400 freestyle.
Mindy Bubp said she hopes Cori Stone can build off a successful junior season.
“She’s got a great attitude this year and she wants to end on a high note,” she said. “We are expecting good things from her and a lot of good leadership.”
With Stone, Timmerman and her daughter Alexis returning to the relay teams, Mindy is also expecting them to have a good year as well.
“We should have some really strong relays and even some second relays with the fact we have 10 (swimmers),” she said.
Alexis Bubp and Timmerman will be freestyle swimmers, with Bubp also concentrating on the 200 individual medley. Timmerman will also swim the breaststroke.
The Indians will be without district qualifiers Rachel Acheson and Carley Stone. The former graduated, and Stone decided to forgo the pool in favor of the hardwood after competing in two winter sports a year ago. Still, Bubp is looking to a trio of seniors and a pair of sophomores to help fill those voids.
The seniors include Payton Thobe, Rachel Kaup and Trisha Thien.
“They’ll all be good point winners for us,” Bubp said.
The freshmen are Cassidy Martin and Reagan Grieshop, and Bubp said she is hoping Martin will be able to contribute immediately. Juniors Faith Hull and Sydney Alig round out the 10-member girls squad.
Fort Recovery’s boys squad has only four swimmers, and they are youthful.
Harrison Kaup returns as the elder statesman. The sophomore and is coming off his first year in the pool, and he’ll be the Tribe’s main freestyle swimmer.
Nolan Thobe, a freshman, swims year round, and Bubp said she expects him to have a strong start to the season as a breaststroke and freestyle swimmer.
Freshmen Owen Sheridan and Noah Lennartz are the other two swimmers on the boys team, and Bubp said she isn’t quite sure what events they will swim come sectional.
Bubp said the biggest challenge facing her team, other than the fact that there are only 14 members combined, is the youth and inexperience of the underclassmen.
“Some of them have swam summer swim, but some of them haven’t swam in a couple years now,” Bubp said. “We’re just going to have to hit the ground running and see how everything goes.”