Campus News
February 3rd, 2026
Northern, Southern partner on swim teams' launch
New Garrett Co. high school teams practice together at Edwards CARC
The Northern Garrett and Southern Garrett high school swim teams just concluded their first regular season, which included two home meets at the Edwards CARC. Pictured, left to right, are (back row) Northern’s Rowan Rikhye, Georgia Blocher, Mary Thrush, Lula Faulkner, Lilah Rikhye, Kirstin Ellis, and August Cain; and (front row) Southern’s Emily Sweitzer, Amelia Roth, Ella Recker, and Kathryn Sweitzer.
The Northern Garrett and Southern Garrett high school swim teams have been collaborators as much as competitors during their inaugural season.
"We competed against each other to some degree, but the whole season long we really worked together," said Southern Garrett head coach Alison Sweitzer, who has two daughters on the Rams' squad. "We practiced together and the kids were even cheering for each other during practice. We had different color caps and different suits, but we all kind of pulled together."
Collaboration was key due in part to the timing of the decision to launch the teams. That decision was finalized in September with practice starting in November at the Edwards Community Aquatic & Recreation Complex (CARC) on the Garrett College campus.
"We didn't have a whole lot of time to put this together," observed Northern Garrett head coach Molly Rikhye, who has two children on the Huskies. "I'm really proud of what we did. I think it's been great for the kids, the parents, and the CARC."
The two teams competed in a total of eight regular-season meets, six away meets in West Virginia and two home meets at the CARC. Both teams will be competing in the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (MPSSAA) 3A/2A/1A West Region championship meet at Fairland Aquatic Center in Laurel on February 14th, with the state championships a week later at the University of Maryland College Park.
"As far as the nuts and bolts of having a meet, we had everything we needed and everything functionally worked well," said Sweitzer of the two home meets at the CARC. "For the future, we would love to get a scoreboard that shows real-time results."
"Although we had the hardware present, none of the software communicated with the hardware," Rikhye noted. "We had to invest in a computer system to run the swim meets. This was done by the gracious donations of our sponsors, as well as the Northern Garrett High School boosters."
Rikhye said her husband, Somi Rikhye, "took the initiative to make sure we could host meets by setting up the computer software, creating the meets with the coordination with the visiting teams, and ensuring that the equipment worked as it should to support the meet.
"He's been volunteering for Club Mountaineer as far as officiating and learning so much about swim meets," Rikhye said of her husband. "As a seasoned West Virginia official, we depended on his experience and knowledge to help us manage the swim team. He was appointed director of officials for Garrett County and used his network of colleagues to serve as MPSSAA-certified officials."
Rikhye said her husband trained with Club Mountaineer to learn to use the MPSSAA swim technology, including both Team Manager and Meet Manager software. "There were really a lot of things that go into hosting meets," she said.
Sweitzer praised the support provided by CARC Director Steve Putnam and Aquatic/Group Fitness Program Coordinator Angela Luby.
"I thought they were great," said Sweitzer. "Angela and Steve were both there for the first home meet, and Steve was on site for the second one. They kept coming out and checking on us during the two meets.
"All of the practices were fine," added Sweitzer. "They were very good on communicating closures or other changes in operations. Christmas week and New Year's they worked with us on alternate practice times that could work for them and us."
Luby and Putnam stressed the collaborations that made a successful season possible.
"Our facilities staff was able to help us in getting everything prepared, including the lane lines and putting in the dive block," said Luby. "IT put in a lot of time into trying to help us with problem-solving the scoreboard issue."
"Our IT and facilities departments did a lot of work behind the scenes to make this happen," added Putnam. "If our facilities guys didn't take care of the pool the way they do, and IT didn't support us, we would never have been able to get this done.
"One of the reasons this came together so well was the teamwork – the Board of Education, the CARC, the College, the swim team coaches, and the volunteers," concluded Putnam.
"All of our kids had great, positive attitudes," said Rikhye. "The parents have been very supportive. We've had some fantastic volunteers like George Collins and John Schlegel."
Rikhye also recognized Paul Edwards, GCPS's director of secondary education and athletics, for his support in helping the swim programs move forward.
"Paul was very supportive throughout the process and helped us navigate what was needed to make this happen," said Rikhye.
"I'm very happy we were able to bring this opportunity to our students," said Edwards. "This is truly a community effort, as the CARC and the College have been great to work with and helped us put together a practice and competition schedule. I also want to thank the coaching staffs of both schools, who really worked hard to make this a great season and experience for our student athletes."
Northern had seven swimmers this year while Southern had four swimmers.
"With the short amount of time we had to stand it up, I think we did pretty well with recruiting kids," observed Sweitzer. "Having the Manta Rays [club swim team] helps considerably in the northern end of the county. It [swimming] isn't quite the draw yet in the Southern end."
Sweitzer added that they "need to work out a better feeder system as part of our long-term plan" along with expanded practice opportunities.
"We practiced Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday this year. It was a good stab. We need to try to add another day," said Sweitzer. "One thing that was really helpful was that Steve agreed to allow our athletes to come in any time if they wanted to swim extra. We gave them workouts to do on their own and they did them.
"It would also be helpful if we can figure out the scoreboard," added Sweitzer, noting that could be a "big-time investment in upgrading software licensing and equipment."
Rikhye said the establishment of high school swim teams is a significant milestone for the county.
"Swimming for their club teams, all our kids' friends would ask, 'Oh, you don't have a high school swim team?'" recalled Rikhye. "So finally, yeah, we have a swim team! They have a chance to swim against their club teammates and they get to take it [their swimming careers] to the next level."
