Julia Crane was the only Wyoming Area winner, taking a pair of events Friday when the school’s boys and girls swimming teams opened their Wyoming Valley Conference seasons at home against Hazleton Area.

Hazleton Area won the girls meet, 121-46, and the boys meet, 132-21.

The meets represented the head coaching debut of Ken Bryden III, who had been serving as the team’s diving coach. He is the third head coach in three seasons for Wyoming Area, which has winless a year ago and has won just one boys meet and one girls meet total in the past three seasons.

With small rosters on both sides, team competition again shapes up as difficult, but Bryden said the concentration will be on improving swimmers individually.

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“This year, my technique is to bring back a family atmosphere,” Bryden said. “There’s 19 of us, a very small group. We’re trying to stay focused, determined and motivated throughout the season.

“For the beginning swimmers, my expectations are just for them to improve technically and the more they practice, hopefully, the lower the times will go.”

Bryden said the goal is to have each swimmer lower his or her teams in each meet as the season progresses.

Crane won the 100-yard breaststroke and 50 freestyle in the opener.

The only second-place finish for either team was Olivia Borys in the 100 backstroke.

Becca Dymond, Grace Huntington and Sofia Sabatini are the other experienced girls, who Bryden hopes will join Crane and Borys in producing the team’s top performances.

Joe Gacek is the most experienced of the swimmers on the boys team.

Wyoming Area was 13th of 15 girls teams and 14th of 15 boys teams in last season’s District 2 Class 2A championships.

Other boys swimmers are Payton Gallagher, Russell Van Auken, J.T. Gober, Tommy Lynch and Benjamin Canfield.

Other girls swimmers include Leonie Heidig, Anna Papkora, Madison Askew, Talia Donati, Maddie Johnson and Gia Nina Larson. Jenna Moore, who is out with a knee injury, is expected to join the lineup for the end of the season.

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By Tom Robinson

For Sunday Dispatch

Reach the Sunday Dispatch newsroom at 570-991-6405 or by email at sd@psdispatch.com.