The strength of this year’s Emporia High boys swimming and diving team is going to be more in the diving than the swimming.
While swimming coach Bob Yevak tries to compensate for the loss of all but one of his state qualifiers, diving coach Barbara Clark has her best talent back as the Spartans open their season at Thursday afternoon’s Emporia Invite. Junior Derek Krause is back to dive for the Spartans a year after a sixth-place finish at state, and senior Sam Nolan just missed qualifying for state last year.
This year, Clark believes that Krause has the talent to place in the top three, and he’ll be leading a capable group. In fact, Clark said she had nine divers who tried out that were worthy of keeping on the team.
“But I had to cut, and I kept five,” Clark said. “So I just have depth with them. And so whenever someone’s really hitting good, I can pull them in.”
Yevak knows he has the tougher job of the two coaches. Aaron Clark, a second-team All-State selection last year, is gone, as are Adam Coburn, Sergio Segura and Scott Peterson, who helped make up the 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams that also went to state.
Yevak has his largest squad ever this year with 26 swimmers, with most of the new additions being sophomores and juniors.
“Probably overall... usually I’d have one, two, sometimes three boys that I knew were gonna qualify for state,” Yevak said. “This year, it’s gonna be hard. We have no year-round swimmers, which is kind of like cross country — if you don’t go year-round, you’re not gonna place.
“We’re solid right now in every event except the 200 IM and probably 100 breaststroke. We’re OK everywhere except those two spots, and obviously, my job is to make sure we’re solid there, too.”
The swim team’s top returners include Dillon Suprian, who was part of last year’s state-qualifying 200 free relay squad, and fellow seniors Cord Stanley, Cody Yevak and Michael Stauffer. The experience of his upperclassmen is the reason that Bob Yevak doesn’t feel like he’s starting over.
“They were involved,” he said. “They were some of the important people last year that the guys that were above ’em, that were so good, carried. If we got relays in, it was because of two other guys that (have) graduated that swam so fast that the other guys kind of went along for the ride. Well, there’s no ride this year.”
But Yevak isn’t worried about how the season’s going to go.
“I always figure, if we can finish in the top four at league — we should always be in the top four,” he said. “And with diving, I feel very comfortable that we’ll be there.”