While the top end of the Henlopen Conference’s boys swimming rankings have been more of the same this year, with Seaford and Cape Henlopen high schools in the No. 1 and 2 spots respectively, a new school has entered its name into the conversation as being elite.
The Lake Forest High School swim team has had a stellar regular season, finishing with an 8-2 record (as of Wednesday) on the strength of a roster that blended talent old and new.
Sarah Sacksteder, the team’s head coach, said she knew the team could perform to this level this season, but for that to happen a lot needed to blend the right way.
“We had good swimmers coming into their senior year and some good talent coming in from the community team with a couple of the freshmen,” Sachsteder said. “They just helped solidify what we already had with our upperclassmen.”
Led by strong seniors Dan Hart and JC Sach, the Spartans were able to rattle off a seven-meet win streak this season, excelling in several events, including their strongest in the 200 free relay.
Freshman Alan Bundschuh said that while a lot of times the pressure mounts during a win streak that never happened with Lake.
“I don’t think there’s pressure when we’re winning,” Bundschuh said. “It’s just going out and doing the same thing every time.”
The lone in-conference blemishes on the Spartans’ record came from powerhouses Cape and Seaford, but Sacksteder said her team found the positives in those losses and realized it was close to being just as good.
“With Seaford, that was the most points we ever scored against them,” she said.
“It was the same situation against Cape. We only lost to them by 16 points.”
To see the progress of the program, Sacksteder added, one doesn’t need to look any further than a jump from being ranked No. 5 a year ago to the No. 3 spot this year.
With the conference championships set to take place Feb. 13 at Lake, Hart said his team is confident it can hold its current standing and possibly even move up.
“We’re going to push a little harder,” he said. “We have a real good chance to beat Cape because they didn’t beat us by much.”
That’s a scenario Sacksteder said she could see play out, as her Spartan boys have been willing to rise to the occasion this year.
