Lake Catholic Girls' Swim Team Pools Together Its Strengths

sophomore swimmer Amy Steigerwald had a nice night racing against Beaumont School on Tuesday, winning the 100-yard backstroke and helping the 200 medley relay team take first.

In fact, Steigerwald has won all three of her 100 backstroke races this season making one believe greater achievements are looming ahead, but the swimmer’s taking a long view balanced with some tempered optimism that reflects much of the Cougars’ approach to the season.

“I don’t know about state. Districts? Yeah, I could go for district. … State? If I want to do that, it might take a few years. But no, I don’t think this year,” Steigerwald, who came in second in the 50 free, said. “You never know, but it depends on how my times improve.”

Lake Catholic lost its dual meet to Beaumont, 105-69, at the Carol and John Butler Aquatic Center of Hathaway Brown in Shaker Heights, but Lake Catholic head coach Amy Bush deemed the experience as valuable.

“We have a really young team. I graduated about seven seniors last year, so we are young and in need of high school swimming experience,” Bush said. “As the season goes on, we will get stronger toward the back end of our season. January and February are going to be good months for us.”

Overall, the Cougars are 2-2 after beating Geneva and Eastlake North and falling to Cuyahoga Heights and Beaumont.

Senior Kara Jankowski was Lake Catholic’s other star of the evening after winning the 200 butterfly (1:12.32) and the 100 breaststroke (1:21.65). She was also part of the winning 200 medley relay team with Steigerwald and sophomores Katie Cressman and Marissa Beller.

Jankowski along with senior 500 free swimmer Michaela DeSantis are among the team’s veterans. Additionally, the team will also rely upon the youth of Cressman who will compete in 50 and 100 free and Beller who races in the 500 free, Bush said.

Changes to the North Coast League have made it even more competitive than it has been in the past, according to Bush, who is in her sixth year as head coach. She’s optimistic the team can rise to the new challenges.

“They restructured the NCL this year. For the last couple of years, we’ve been in second place. I guess my hope this year is we take second or third again to just kind of stay where we are. We’ve got teams like Beaumont and Walsh in our league now which is going to be huge competition for us,” Bush said.

Lake Catholic travels to Euclid on Tuesday for a dual meet that begins at 5 p.m.