Indian swimmers to lean on senior class

More than half of the Tribe girls are seniors. They bring a ton of postseason success.

Coach Mindy Bubp is hopeful their knowledge, strength and work ethic can carry over to the rest of the team.

“Obviously they bring a lot of experience,” Bubp, Fort Recovery High School’s swim coach, said of the seven senior girls on her 2020-21 squad, which opens its shortened season Monday. “They are fired up about their senior year. I just hope that they do get the chance to compete in meets and have the chance to have a good senior year.

“They’ve spent a lot of years in the pool, it’d be nice for them to have a season.”

Ava Bubp and Paige Fortkamp are two of the seven seniors who bring the most experience, having been among a 2018 quintet that was the program’s first state qualifiers.

Fortkamp, who doubles her winter duties while also competing for the Indians on the hardwood, is a sprinter, which coach said works well given that she doesn’t have a whole lot of time to practice.

Ava Bubp is a distance swimmer, handling the 200-yard freestyle, 500 freestyle and 200 individual medley events.

Those two, coach said, have been role models for the rest of the team regardless of the grade of the other members.

“I think it gives them the leadership,” Mindy Bubp said. “They know what it takes to get to state so I think those girls look up to them. Those girls are very hard workers and they are just very good at relating to younger kids.

“I think it is a really good position to have some state qualifiers and have them be seniors.”

Shelby Stammen is a two-time district qualifier, and Autumn Burk was part of a relay that reached district in 2019 as well. Katie McIntosh-Thobe, Kyra Clark and Laura Hipple round out the senior group. Clark is returning to the team after taking a year off, and Hipple comes back as the team’s diver.

“I’ve got a lot of potential there if we have some good meets this season,” said Mindy Bubp, whose team for now only has six meets scheduled, five of which are duals.

Audra Bubp, Ava’s sophomore sister and Mindy’s other daughter, reached district last year as a freshman, and she’ll reprise her role as the team’s breaststroker. Junior Melissa Laux, sophomores Grace Klingshirn and Danielle Braun as well as freshman Teigen Fortkamp — Paige’s sister — and Allison Knapke round out the 13-member team.

“I have a really strong second relay,” Mindy Bubp said of having a relatively big group of swimmers despite not having a home pool. “For a lot of small schools the opportunity to have a second relay is good for us to be able to compete in duals.”

The Indian boys, however, only have a half dozen members.

Michael Braun is the only senior, and Bubp is looking for him to improve in the backstroke. Junior Isaac Knapke will compete in the breaststroke, with classmate Aiden Sheridan swimming the butterfly. Sheridan, however, has been nursing a shoulder injury, putting his effectiveness in the event in question.

Sophomores Alex Hiser and Isaac LeFevre are divers, and they’ll also compete in a couple swimming events. LeFevre will try his hand at the distance races while Hiser will be part of the sprinters.

Bubp said Sage Wendel, the team’s only freshman, is an all-around swimmer and that she’s unsure where he’ll fit in quite yet, but he could take over for Sheridan should he not be able to swim because of his shoulder.

“I think the goal this year with the diving and the swimming is to go stronger and to work on technique in the sprints to see what we can do relay wise,” Bubp said of the plan for the boys.