Sisters Kendra and Paige Miller will be familiar faces in the pool for Wawasee’s girls swim team this season. (Photo by Mike Deak)

SYRACUSE – The excitement of what might be this year for the Wawasee girls swim team is only just beginning. But, please don’t try to convince head coach Julie Robinson this team is a world beater.

“Every year, we just want to take things one meet at a time,” Robinson stated. “We can’t worry about beating a Northridge team in January when its still November. And we have a lot of meets before then. We just need to worry about what’s in front of us first.”

While Wawasee wants to prove itself against the likes of Concord and perennial area power Northridge in the loaded Northern Lakes Conference, the Lady Warriors have plenty of firepower and have several swimmers returning from state experience.

Among the two dozen swimmers on the preseason roster, Wawasee features just two seniors in Jaden Bussert and Sam Bontrager, of which Bontrager has the bulk of the experience as a returning letterwinner.

Where Wawasee’s strength lies is its junior class, a very experienced core that should frontline the program. On everyone’s radar is Bre Robinson, who has emerged from big sister Brittany’s shadow as a state contender in her own right. Robinson left a sectional champion in both the 100 and 200 freestyles last February and was the No. 1 seed heading into state weekend. A pair of third-place medals in Indianapolis, however, wasn’t good enough for Robinson, who should be on a mission again for a state title.

What has built around Robinson’s spotlight are classmates that can hold their own. Kendra Miller provided a very formidable presence in speed swims while Hannah Winters and Caitlin Clevenger both made huge strides in the specialized swims. Tori Sylvester returns as a junior to the diving board, where an injury-riddled sophomore season had her great one day, hurt the next questioning what could be as this year unfolds.

“It’s a really interesting group, the base being that junior class that have improved so much from their freshman year,” Robinson said. “The kids are really hard workers. It really seems like this is a group of girls that mesh well and have already bonded.”

Wawasee has just three sophomores on the roster, but all three made significant contributions. Kayla Hershberger showed she belonged with a tremendous push in the 500 last year as well as in relays while Mikala Mawhorter may have been one of the most improved swimmers in the program last year. Cassidy Manning also brings a year of experience in freestyle swims.

Where Wawasee could make a run at knocking Northridge from the pedastal this year is its freshman class. Led by experienced club swimmers like Shelby Adams and Paige Miller, as well as talented athletes such as Molly Swartz and Bridgette Yoder, coach Robinson has roster depth that is quite enticing.

“It’s hard to tell or judge where anyone will be, especially only having them in the water for a short amount of time,” Robinson said of her freshman class. “The expectation of the freshman to compete a high level will eventually be there, but it will take time. But I think with this group, they really have the talent to do great things.”

Wawasee will open its competition season with home meets Nov. 16 against DeKalb and Nov. 26 with East Noble before jumping into a jam-packed NLC slate with a Nov. 30 roadie at Warsaw.