South Meck swimmers strive for another title

The 2006-07 season was good for the South Mecklenburg boys’ swim team.

The Sabres won the Southwestern 4A conference and finished second at the N.C. High School Athletic Association 4A state championship.

When senior swimmer Mitchell Cooper started looking at the upcoming season this summer, he thought this year could be just as strong.

He looked at the times of the returning Sabres swimmers. He looked at the other teams in the conference. Then he looked at the freshmen he expected to join the program.

Cooper liked what he saw.

The South Meck boys’ swim team finished the regular season undefeated (8-0). At the Southwestern 4A swim meet next weekend, the Sabres have a good chance to win another conference championship.

“It’s kind of played out how I expected it to,” Cooper said.

Like the season six years ago, the Sabres are a mix of experienced upperclassmen and young, talented freshmen.

Seniors Cooper, Kenny Dimitrov and Spencer Green, and juniors Jason Hsieh and Matthew Cooper (Mitchell’s younger brother) all competed at the 4A state meet for South Meck last year. The Sabres finished 17th.

Mitchell also swam in the state meet his freshman year, when the Sabres finished fourth.

“For the past two years, I don’t think we lost many strong guy swimmers,” said Dimitrov. “All of us seniors that have been here just, like, got better until senior year.”

A group of talented freshmen joined that group this season, including Graham Weaver, Noah Cahan, Graham Cooper (the third Cooper brother on the team) and Nathan Murray.

Mitchell Cooper said he knew that the freshmen were supposed to be good, but he’s impressed with the way they’ve performed so far this year.

“I’m just really proud of how the freshman guys have stepped up this year,” he said. “Your freshman year, you’re always kind of a question mark, you don’t really know how you’re going to do. But they’ve exceeded expectations.”

Murray said the team also fits together “like a puzzle,” with swimmers having different strengths and the ability to swim multiple events.

“We don’t have too many people competing for one event,” he said. “We’re spread out pretty well.”

The Sabres don’t have one superstar swimmer. They’re deep, which head coach Leslie Berens said is a key to having success in the sport.

Not only are the team’s top relays - the “A” relays - good, but the “B” relay is also competitive, scoring the team second and third place points in meets.

“We have incredible depth,” Weaver said. “That’s something we definitely have working for us that a lot of the other schools don’t.”

The South Meck swimmers had high expectations coming into the season and realized how good they could be at the Pfeiffer Invitational meet at the beginning of the season. The Sabres finished just 20 points behind Hough, which finished second in the 4A state meet last year. South Meck lost several points because of disqualifications.

“If we had just buckled down and, kind of, gotten serious for that one, there was a good chance of a win,” Dimitrov said. “It also showed us what we can do during our regular season and that kind of boosted us.”

The Sabre boys had sights on winning all their regular season meets. The largest obstacle was Providence High, a team that had won five straight conference championships and three straight 4A state championships.

South Meck hadn’t beaten Providence since 2007, which is also the last time the Panthers lost a regular season conference meet.

The Sabres beat Providence 144-142, led by a first place finish in the 200-yard individual medley relay by Mitchell, a 50-free win by Dimitrov and a 100-yard butterfly win by Hsieh.

South Meck also took the top three spots in the 100-yard breaststroke with Weaver, Isaac Loydpierson and Zach Wright.

The win gave the Sabres momentum toward the end of the season. South Meck beat Ardrey Kell a few days later and beat Charlotte Catholic earlier in the season. But Berens stresses the team can’t get cocky.

“I never want to be overconfident in anything, so I’m trying to keep them focused and on a mission,” said Berens, who is in her sixth year coaching the team and is the mother of Olympic gold-medalist swimmer Ricky Berens. Her younger son, Tim, also swam at South Meck and is now at South Carolina.

The Sabres will compete in the SW4A meet Jan. 26 at the Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center. The 4A West Regional is Feb. 2 at the Huntersville Aquatic Center and the state swimming meet is Feb. 7 at the Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary.

The diving meet is the day before at Pullen Aquatic Center in Raleigh. South Meck diver Brendan Schaffer will also be an important part of how the Sabres finish at the state meet.

The Sabre boys haven’t won a state championship since 1989. Before the season, the Sabres set a goal of finishing in the top five in the state.

“I think now seeing how we swam so far, I think top three is a definite possibility, and maybe even higher than that,” Mitchell said.

Many of South Meck’s top swimmers are year-round swimmers with clubs around the city. Through most of the year, they’re focused on individual times and accomplishments.

Right now, those swimmers are focused on doing whatever they can to make the high school team succeed.

“Sometimes you can have swimming just as an individual sport and you think it’s all about me and this is my event, but we do so much at South to make it a team,” Berens said. “All of these guys are looking out for each other, they’re supporting each other. There’s no trash talk. Nobody’s arguing. It’s fun. It’s fun to be a part of that.”