2024-25 Fort Recovery swim preview

Matches to watch

Friday-Saturday, Jan. 10-11, vs. JCHS Invite

With thinned out teams, this will be the Indians first chance to get a feel for what events each swimmer would best fit into during larger meets.

Saturday, Jan. 25, in MAC Invite

The Midwest Athletic Conference meet will both serve as a final tune up for the Tribe tankers in a larger meet before they head off to the sectional, as well as it provides them an opportunity to claim some conference accolades.

Fast facts

•Fort Recovery has sent swimmers to the state meet in three of the past four seasons. Teigen Fortkamp made it as an individual in 2023 and 2024, while relay teams got through in 2021 and 2023. 

•Caleb Smith broke the school record for the 100-yard breaststroke last season with a time of 1 minute, 10.83 seconds, on Jan. 22, when the Tribe picked up its only win against St. Henry.

•With a smaller lineup, the Indians plan on mixing their lineup around throughout the season to find the best way to maximize points, while matching swimmers to events they are strong in.

Boys projected events

Carson Fullenkamp – breaststroke/distance freestyle

Caleb Smith – breaststroke/backstroke

Girls projected events

Joelle Kaup – sprint freestyle/butterfly

Liza Knapke – butterfly/distance freestyle

Nevaeh Lennartz – distance freestyle/butterfly

Aubrey Shuttleworth – freestyle/backstroke

Livy Timmerman – breaststroke/sprint freestyle

Top Returners

Caleb Smith

Ninth in sectional breaststroke

Carson Fullenkamp

13th in sectional 100-yard freestyle

Joelle Kaup

14th in district 50-yard freestyle

Nevaeh Lennartz

24th in sectional 500-yard freestyle

Top Departures

Sage Wendel

13th in district 100-yard backstroke

Teigen Fortkamp

23rd in state 100-yard backstroke

Paige Guggenbiller

23rd in district 100-yard breaststroke

Allison Knapke

14th in sectional 200-yard IM

2023-24 season

Despite fighting a low number of athletes, the Indians found success in the sectional, getting four individual swimmers through in six events and two relay teams as well. Fort Recovery couldn’t get the relay through to state, but Teigen Fortkamp made it in the 100-yard backstroke and the 50 freestyle. She earned 23rd and 29th-place finishes, respectively. With only three swimmers, the boys team only managed one victory on the year against St. Henry, for a 1-11 record. The girls took a majority of their meets to claim an 8-4 record. Fortkamp and Sage Wendel both earned a pair of MAC titles for the Tribe.

Coach Mindy Bubp says

“We lost several seniors, so I would consider this year and the next year to be kind of building years for us. Joelle (Kaup) is a returning district swimmer and I’ve got a couple of junior boys that are returning. Nevaeh Lennartz is also a returning senior. The rest of the group is fairly new. Right now we are going to go back to the basics. We’re going to really focus on doing things right and then working on speed after we’ve mastered all the finer points on each stroke, our starts and our turns and just focusing on doing things well and then turn it into speed. This is a great group of kids. I think we’re going to focus on having fun and personal bests and really improving through the season.”