It’s the third season for the Marian swimming program, and it will also go down as a historic season for the club.

For the first time in its history, Marian will field both a boys and girls team, and it will compete in dual meets this season.

In the past, Marian swimmers could only compete as individuals at meets, and many times had to swim by themselves against no other swimmers in the pool to record their times.

“This is so exciting for our program. We have 11 swimmers on our roster, which is way up from the six we had on the team last season. We will compete in 10 dual meets, but unfortunately, we were not able to get into the Schuylkill League this season because the league is in the second year of a two-year cycle,” said Marian head coach Andrea Feathers. “But it’s going to be great for our swimmers to actually be able to go out there and compete and race in the regular-season meets.”

Marian returns the Times News Swimmer of the Year from a season ago in Michael Strucko. Strucko won the 500 freestyle and the 100 backstroke at the Schuylkill League meet last season, and followed that up with another 500 freestyle gold and 100 backstroke silver at the District 11 2A championships. His district gold earned him a berth in the PIAA state championship meet. Also returning is Zoey Katona, who finished second at leagues and third in districts in the 100 breaststroke. Delaney Erickson and Reece Steibler also return, and are expected to make yet another run at districts. Newcomer Lydia Strucko, the little sister of Michael, is a talented swimmer that is expected to make waves at the league and district level as well this season for Marian.

“We have a really good group returning. I expect both Michael and Lydia to get to states, and Zoey was so close last year, so I think she is going to be able to get there as well,” said Feathers.

“And then we have Delany and Reece that will make some noise at districts for us, and the rest of the team is working hard as well and getting better every day.”

Now that Marian has enough swimmers to form a full roster to field both boys’ and girls’ teams, it can now also compete in relays at meets.

“Swimming in relays is also very exciting for us. We are hoping to put a good relay team together in order to qualify for districts. It also will help our swimmers stay warm throughout a meet, and it will give us more participation opportunities,” said Feathers. “I also want to thank the Tamaqua swim team, Tamaqua Blue Waves and the Mahanoy Area swim team for allowing us to use their facilities and their pool. Without their support, we wouldn’t be able to have a team and we are very grateful for their help.”