TIM WEIGHT/For The Express Bellefonte competes during a swimming meet last week. The Red Raiders have six district qualifiers back from last year’s team.

You can teach techniques and give advice to swimmers as a coach and teammate, but one thing you can’t teach is experience. It’s invaluable and it’s one thing Bellefonte’s swim team can definitely say it has.

The Red Raiders bring back six swimmers who competed at the District 6 championships last winter.

Sydney Fetters, Riley Hoy, Lizzy Weaver, Elise Hoffman, Sarah Litten and Malik Turner are all back and put on great showings at last year’s district championships.

And having that experience against the district’s best will help the swimmers excel again this winter.

Fetters, Hoy and Hoffman were all part of two relay teams last year.

Fetters, a junior, was part of the fifth-place medley relay team which swam a 2:06.37 and was on the fifth-place 400 free relay team. Individually, Fetters took fifth in the 200 IM in 2:25.46, shaving 11 seconds off her seeded time and took fourth in the 100 back by shaving six seconds off her seeded time with a time of 1:03.77.

Also part of the 200 medley relay team who returns is Weaver, a sophomore. Weaver also swam on the 200 free relay team with Hoffman, a sophomore, as they took eighth in1 :58.48. Hoffman swam on the 200 medley relay team as well. Litten swam in both the 200 free relay and 400 free relay.

Weaver got experience individually in the 500 free, but didn’t finish, and was an 11th-place finisher in the 100 back in 1:09.24.

Sophomore Hoy took ninth in the 50 free to shave roughly half a second off her seeded time in 27.86. She was a bronze medalist in the 100 breast with a time of 1:14.95 and trailed only Penns Valley’s Mila Klena, who won gold in 1:07.49, and Claysburg-Kimmels’ Alexys Tomlinson, who was a silver medalist in 1:10.81.

Litten took 12th in the 50 free and 10th in the 100 free in1 :02.38.

Last year Turner, now a senior, took sixth in 24.50 in the 50 free and was a 500 free competitor and finished fourth in 5:28.50.

Bellefonte lost a talented swimmer in Ashley Moretz who graduated. Moretz was a ninth-place finisher in the 500 free in 6:11.15.

BALD EAGLE AREA

The Eagles bring back a number of swimmers to this year’s team which competed at last year’s District 6 championships. That includes Eli Mercier, Connor Dixson, Caylynn Dixson and Laurie Thompson.

Those four all return with valuable experience and are eyeing better finishes this winter at districts.

Mercier was a sophomore last year and had a silver medal in the 200 free with a time of 1:53.71. Mercier shaved seven seconds off his seeded time and was less than half a second behind Westmont Hilltop sophomore Cullen Miller (1:52.30) in a tight race. Mercier also took home a bronze medal in the 100 breast in 1:05.69 and was behind just Penns Valley’s Liam Quigley (gold with a district record of 57.41) and Rockwood’s Jonathan Monteith (silver in 1:02.75).

Connor Dixson took fifth in the 200 IM as a freshman last year and swam a time of 2:21.54 and was also a fifth-place finisher in the 100 back in 1:01.47.

Caylynn Dixson had a great freshman season last year for Bald Eagle Area. She swam a 2:22.04 to take home a fourth-place finish in the 200 IM and had six seconds shaved off her seeded time. Dixson also took bronze in the 100 free with a time of 57.96 and shaved three seconds off her seeded time.

In that race, Central Cambria’s Lindsey Hodge, a senior, won in 57.15 and Cambria Heights senior Loren Stipanovich took second in 57.91.

Also back for the Eagles is Laurie Thompson, who was just a freshman and had a great season much like Dixson did. Thompson took 14th in the 50 free in 28.55 and was a tenth-place finisher in the 500 free in 6:11.48.

Those four swimmers were key last year for Bald Eagle Area and will be looked upon once again to lead the Eagles this year in the pool.