Swim Team Expects Promising Season

Ponca City Wildcat Head Swimming Coach Heather Harris expects a very promising 2019-2020 season. She stated, “This season is looking great. We have 16 members on the team. 8 boys and 8 girls. We train from the first day of school until the end of February. Weights, Swimming, and running. They work hard to make gains in the pool and weight room. We have 7 home meets this year which is awesome! We love swimming for our home crowd. Our first meet of the season is against Oolagah on the 12th. The meet starts at 6 and is free to get in. We have home meets on November 21st and 26th as well and those start at 6. Our meets are at the Ponca City Rec Plex Swimming pool.
Our boys team consists of Tate Burdick, Haydan Jones, Brady Ladner, Max Engster, Michael Mayer, Caden Case, Tanner Estes, and Tommy Rathburn.

Our only senior boy is Tate Burdick. He is the fastest sprinter to come out of the Ponca City Swim program. He has been a top 3 finisher at regionals and a top 6 finisher at state all four years. He has the chance to be a regional champion this year in both the 50 and 100 Freestyle. He also has a good chance of being a state champ in the 50 and 100 Freestyle this year as well.
Caden Case is also right behind Tate in the 50 and 100 Free and will be a big asset to the boy’s team this year.
We have two senior girls and they are Hailey Lorett and Taylor Phillips. They both should qualify for state this year in individuals and relays.
Tayler Bennett, sophomore, is our distance specialist and should also qualify at state this year in individual and relays. She barely missed her individual state cuts last year, however, she qualified in relays for Ponca.
Simone Villarruel is a Freshman this year and is looking to be one of the fastest backstrokers in the state. She has the potential to be a top 3 finishers at regionals and state in the 50 free and 100 backstroke. She will be a huge force to our women’s team.
MacKezie Crowder, Rylee Strah, Natalie Caudill, and Kayliee Payne will also be in the running for state qualification times.
I have a really great group of kids this year and we are looking to do big things. We usually qualify 10-12 members to go compete at the state meet and I am looking to do that again this year. We went 6-3 boys record and 6-3 girls record last year and I am also hoping to improve that this year.”