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Second half of summer swim season kicks off tonight

Never before has the Purple Wave experienced anything like this.

Through the first half of the season, the Purple Wave has yet to taste defeat. It’s a taste the swimmers don’t want to lose from their mouths.

"This is just supposed to be fun, compared to high school where it’s so much more competitive," said MacKenzie Porter, who helped lead the Bulldogs to a memorable high school season this past winter. "It doesn’t really matter if we win or lose. But it’s definitely a bonus to win all the time."

That’s the part that has been so out of character for the Wave. Kearney has started the summer with three consecutive victories, already matching the program record for single-season wins.

This is a program that managed a mere four wins in the first six summers as a member of the Northland Swim and Dive Conference from 1998 to 2003. Kearney won two meets per season for the following four years, until breaking through with three victories this summer and last.

"For us, winning three meets at the first of the year is a big deal," Mabrey said. "The big deal for us as a team is that we still have three opportunities to better our record from last year."

Kearney has a chance to blow that record out of the water. In fact, there might even be thoughts of going undefeated.

However, the Wave will be faced with stiff challenges, taking on three quality programs the final weeks of the regular season. Kearney will swim tonight, Thursday, July 2, against Brooktree; July 9 against Clayview; and July 14 at Old Pike.

"Someone asked me if we have a chance to win all our meets, and I said, ‘I don’t know about that,’" Mabrey said. "That would be something we’ve never done, but I’m not sure that’s a realistic expectation right now. That was the first time I had even thought of that because my goal for these guys right now is to win one more than last year."

Mabrey’s team should be excited to get back in the pool. Kearney had a bye last week, allowing the swimmers to take some time off from competing and focus on practice.

"It’s good to have a week off," Porter said. "It gives us a chance to relax a little bit and work on our strokes."

That’s exactly the benefit of the midseason break. If the athletes put in the work, the team could come out even stronger for the second half of the season.

"I think our bye is coming at a good time here in the middle," Mabrey said. "This gives us a chance to do some good work, work on technique. It gives us a little more of a chance to help the newer kids and to refine the strokes of the more experienced ones. We’re always looking to improve. There’s always something you can do to get better, and this gives us a chance to fine tune some of that stuff."

Sports writer Chris Geinosky can be reached at 389-6654 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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