The Salisbury High School boys and girls swim team opened its 2022-23 season last weekend with a meet at Moravian Academy. This year’s edition of the Falcons program will look vastly similar to last year’s team in that only one senior graduated and won’t be back.

Head coach Mackenzie Sikora had Nicholas Jewell graduate. He primarily swam the 50-yard freestyle.

But the large group that is back, specifically on the girls side, is primed for a successful campaign, one which started with a victory against the Lions last Friday to begin the season undefeated.

Sikora is excited to be able to coach this group again with a lot of familiar faces, but also for some younger swimmers bringing an influx of talent to the program.

“We have a couple of newcomers who have already proven to be key members in our first meet against Moravian, helping to contribute to our girls’ team winning,” said Sikora. “Freshman Olivia Amorim won the girls 100-yard butterfly (1:05.22) and 200 individual medley (2:22.10) and freshman Phoebe Balleck won the girls 100 backstroke and 200 freestyle (2:07.11). They also contributed to the relays which we were able to pull ahead in, and we hope to be able to qualify for post season this year with the new talent.”

The girls team is primarily young, with just two seniors in Ella DeFazio and Katherine Updegrove. Juniors Allison Beckage, Gabriella De Jesus, Fatmeh Mahmud and Macy Newman are other upperclassmen that will bring experience. There are two sophomores in Amelia Swoyer and Sally Wiggins and then eight freshmen.

The boys side has a little more experience at the top of the lineup, but not as many numbers as the girls.

“We do have a much smaller boys team, but with six brand-new swimmers, we expect to improve times and technique as the season goes on,” said Sikora. “We are expecting a great season with having the numbers this year at 26 swimmers between the two. We hope to continue to drop times and work hard at each practice to get just keep improving.”

Some of the returning boys swimmers include seniors Gavin Berger, Noah Kichline and Jackson Kramp, along with sophomore Cameron Kubinsky. Salisbury is back in the pool on Saturday morning at Allen High School.

The Falcons will once again compete on the road all season with no designated home pool.