After a season that was expected to be record-breaking for the Lane boy’s swimming and diving team, they head into the 2021-22 campaign with question marks, yet hope for the future.

While six weeks from now, the team will be in the heart of their season, last year the team had only six weeks total for their season due to COVID-19.

“Last year, we should have sent the 400 free relay to state,” said boys swimming and diving head coach Matthew O’Hagan. “I think we would have with a full team, but we only have one person returning on the team for that relay.”

That one swimmer, Jakub Galaczynski, highlights a light returning group of swimmers after the 2021 graduating class hit the team hard.

On top of Galacynski, O’Hagan said he heard of some newcomers who will be joining the team, as well as junior varsity and returning varsity swimmers who improved over the offseason.

“There might be some surprises that are nice to see,” O’Hagan said.

While newcomers will make up a decent sized part of this incoming team, this also means more adjustments will have to be made.

“Typically when you get someone in their freshman year, the swim season is drastically different from a club season. … So this year, there will be sophomores that will probably find that transition a little bit tougher, because they only did a six week season last year,” O’Hagan said.

In addition to adjustments with the new schedule, O’Hagan also has hopes for improvements in the water, as the team looks to “build upon success” in recent years.

“I think a lot of things that the team is lacking in general is just strength in the water,” O’Hagan said. “And that’s what our morning practices are mainly geared towards is building strength in the water so that they can have that power and that top end speed to be able to fill that gap.”

The swim team held tryouts last Tuesday, Nov. 22. They’ll kick off their season on Dec. 4 at the Maine East Invite.

“We want to raise the average speed of the team instead of just having one or two really, really fast people and then having a big drop off,” O’Hagan said. “So, you know, trying to get everyone on board and you know, working hard is what we’ve been working towards. And that’s what we try and hope to do for this year.”