To say the Tamaqua swim teams have always been competitive would be an understatement.

There are always girls that compete strongly and the boys, well they have had their share of success in the diving competition. Just think back for the past two seasons in the diving events where Billy Fredrick and Billy Shilko carried the banner for the Blue Raiders in the Schuylkill League events.

Those two have graduated, along with two girls swimmers in Hailey Sherry and Sarah Maura. And coach Jennifer Paisley calls them key losses. But she is optimistic with a roster that has strong numbers.

Paisley said they are 26 rostered swimmers between the boys and the girls. But 12 of those swimmers are first-time participants in a sport that has but only six schools under the Schuylkill League banner.

“We have a lot of underclassmen who we hope will step up this year and make an impact,” said Paisley.

The veterans returning for the Lady Blue Raiders include senior Brianna Dumond, who had a strong season and swam well in the league and District 11 meets, and senior Logan Hartney. Also returning will be Madelyn Jones, who is now a junior and sophomore Maura Walker.

Dumond is a versatile athlete, said Paisley, and she has the luxury of placing her in any event, but will stay with this talent in the backstroke. Jones will compete in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle races, while Walker is called a strong intermediate swimmer. Jones returns to the diving along with fellow veteran diver Hailey Toth.

Look for Nicole Aguero-Ramirez to score points, and a few freshmen who Paisley is hoping to bolster the squad as the season moves forward.

“It’s just a matter of time for our young swimmers who haven’t faced competition to get use to the varsity level of swimming,” Paisley said.

For the boys, there’s senior Zeno Zukovich and juniors Alexander Barron and Nathaniel Kovalchick. Barron returns in the breaststroke event, Kovalchick is a distance freestyler and Zukovich is a top-flight sprinter.

“Our kids are working very hard,” said Paisley. “Anytime you have a roster of 26 kids and you see numbers like this increasing every year, it’s good to see and it creates a lot of excitement for everyone.”

Paisley said having the new kids for the first time is going to be a big challenge.

“For some of these kids, it is sort of out of their comfort zone, but I love to watch them compete,” she said

On a side note, Paisley does have one of Tamaqua’s football players, as the team reached the state semifinals.

“Zeno (Zukovich) tore his ACL and just was released to swim,” said Paisley. “I’d love to have more of those players… it would be just great.”