Whitehall head swimming coach Pete Rile is happy his overall numbers are back where they should be for the season.

However, sometimes there is a catch.

“The good news is that we have 21 girls and 12 boys,” said the veteran head coach. “The bad news is that roughly two-third of our girls are new to competitive swimming. Some have some summer league experience, but we really have little experience. We have some out for the first time.”

Rile will look to seniors Neave Doyle, Alexis Quach, and Megan Wallitsch to help lead with their experience. The girls finished 13th at districts last season.

“These girls can help the younger swimmers,” added Rile. “They are three solid swimmers for us. Right now, though, it looks like we don’t have a lot of district-bound swimmers.”

On the boys’ side, juniors Aaron Stinner and Ian Thomas both had top-10 finishes at districts last season, and they both are ready to reach the next level.

Stinner was third in the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle, while Thomas was fourth in 100 breaststroke and seventh in the 50 freestyle.

“Aaron has a very good chance to get to states,” said Rile. “Ian has a lot of experience, and he should do very well by the end of the season.”

Rile is counting on a number of younger swimmers to mature throughout the season.

“We have some freshmen girls who we believe we can eventually count on,” said Rile. “There is a group of freshmen boys as well. We have a big load of sophomores. We’re starting to get our numbers back from last year.”

Rile was impressed with his team’s scrimmage against Liberty.

“It went pretty well,” said Rile. “Some of our new kids didn’t know what a meet looked like.

“But we had a good performance, and it should help us.”

The Zephyrs opened the season Tuesday at Pocono Mountain West. Rile, who is in his 34th year at the helm, sees a turnover in the East Penn Conference with a number of new coaches.

But he sees positives with his budding club.

“We’re happy with our numbers, and there are a number of teams with low numbers,” said Rile. “The numbers are really light all over. We lost a number of meets last year because we couldn’t put enough people out there.

“We believe we can fill our spots, and we’ll go from there.”