Bridge Sports Complex Athletes of the Week - Morgantown Swim

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) - Our Bridge Sports Complex Athletes of the Week are the captains from Morgantown high school’s swim team: Delaney Householder, Carter Redelman, Caroline Riggs and Lake Embrey. View the story above*.

Morgantown swim finished their season opener strong, winning first in 15 of 22 events. For the captain group, headed up by four swimmers of the Mohigan team, they’ve seen plenty of improvement even in their first meet.

“I feel like we’ve seen a lot of dedication,” said senior captain Caroline Riggs. “Everyone is coming to practice. We have a lot of kids that are part of the band, so not everyone was able to get all of their 14 in today, but other than that everyone has been coming to practice. I think we’ll all be ready, or eligible, for the next meet, so that will definitely be even more exciting of a meet because we’ll have even more full of a roster.”

“We also have a lot more confidence than we had last year,” said junior captain Delaney Householder. “It’s really good to see, it’s really exciting.”

“Our team, boys and girls, are doing really well I think this year,” said Carter Redelman. “Lake, who’s next to me, he had a really good time in his 200 free. Overall, we’re having strong relays and strong team coming up for states.”

Of course, for the senior group, this meet is their last time suiting up for the first time for Morgantown. With that in mind, they still are focused on helping their teammates in their first meets.

“It’s really fun. Today was a good day in that it was the first day back in the high school season,” said Redelman. “I’m looking forward to the rest of it. Senior season cathces up quick too. I remember my first meet as a freshman and now I’m ending my career as a senior.”

“It’s great to see everyone have their first meet,” said Riggs. “Whether it be their first meet of the season or their first meet ever for high school. It’s super exciting to see. All of the seniors, it’s our last first meet, and then for Freshmen, it’s their first meet. There’s excitement at all levels.”

Leading a team in a sport that mixes individual performance with team results is daunting, but for this group of captains, specifically Lake Embrey, there’s no task too tall when it comes to making everyone feel like family.

“As a captain I get to lead them. It’s like a family,” said the senior Embrey. “I love being the father figure in this case. I really love it. There’s nothing like leading a team like one of these. I would say team spirit is paramount. Any good team will have good team spirit. Great camaraderie. Great teamwork. Great Spirit. Loud, volume.”

“I really like to help cheer everyone on,” said Delaney Householder. “Really get everyone excited, it’s a lot of fun. I want them to have as much fun as I have.”

“Everybody around me, all of the boy swimmers, I’m really close with,” said Redelman. “The girls swimmers as well are all really close friends. It’s great to spend two plus hours with them, just swimming.”

As the team continues to host meets at Mylan Park, the next one on the slate is the Mohawk Invitational, an opportunity for the goup to not only compete, but spend time with those they are close with.

“It’s pretty great. We’re blessed to have this amazing pool from West Virginia,” said Redelman. “We usually host those every year. I know some people from Parkersburg as well. It’s great racing close friends like that.”

With the season opener taking place in the middle of Thanksgiving break, there’s one quote that best describes this team.

“Even though it is Thanksgiving break, we have our own family there,” said Embrey. “We work, we play, we laugh, we grow

*correction - a typo has been made in the lower third for this video, Delaney Householder is identified as Lily Linscheid. Any quotes from the story above that are credited to Householder will be reflected as such in text. We apologize for this error as it was not corrected in time for the second airing of this package - Tyler Kennett

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