Laura Griffin is a swim team parent.
Columbia High School’s swim meet Tuesday will be a homecoming of sorts for the team.
It’s been three years since the Columbia High School swimmers held a swim meet in their home pool after being displaced while the 88-year-old CHS pool was under repair.
For the last two seasons, the team has had to practice and swim all their meets at “away” pools. Only the seniors who have been on the team since freshman year have had the chance to swim in a meet at CHS.
CHS will welcome Newark Academy to its historic four-lane pool at 4:30 p.m., which, in addition to being repaired, now has new lane lines, flags, benches and clocks.
The 52-swimmer team is led by seniors Jane Ehlers, Mia Goldstein, Kristen Masnyj, Sofia Petros, Caroline Van Zeijts, Hailey White, David Alvarez, Connor Annand, David DeFranco, Avi Duvvuri, Dwayne Ellmore, Michael Goodman and Ben Pitman.
In the team’s first outing last week at Montclair Kimberly Academy, the boy’s team won and the girls team lost in a close meet that was tied for much of it. The record for both teams last year was 2-7.
Take a look at photos from the first meet, in our photo gallery below. Click on any photo to begin. (Photo credit: Max Goldstein; photo of Coach Maggie courtesy of Danielle Prybylek).
Coach Maggie Singler Keenan, a former Columbia swimmer and former record holder for the 50, 100 and 200 free and the 100 fly and 100 back, says she is anticipating a strong showing by the team this year, in part because they’re back practicing in their home pool.
“We are so excited to be back where we belong and in our own pool,” Singler Keenan said. “The pool looks better than ever and our team led by a terrific group of seniors is ready to welcome back their competition at CHS.”
In addition, she said, the freshman girls have come on strong and have the potential to break some records this year.
To keep track of the team and learn when the rest of the home meets will take place, check the online schedule. To find rosters and schedules for swimming and other CHS sports visit https://highschoolsports.nj.com/school/maplewood-columbia/.
