GALION — It’s time for the Galion Tigers’ swimming teams to take to the water. They will do so under the leadership of coach Ted Temple, who is entering his 24th season at Galion and is bringing 45+ years of coaching experience to his boys and girls squads.

The boys team has had its fair share of success since joining the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference for the 2014-2015 season. Temple’s boys squad has won the league championship in back-to-back seasons and are working towards a 3-peat this 2016-2017 year. The Tigers will be returning eight letterwinners from last year’s MOAC championship team and will have a roster of 16 total swimmers. They finished 2016 9-2 overall and 3-0 in the conference.

New to the team this season are freshmen Braxton Tate, Issac Niedermeir, Garrett Murphy, Darron Brooks, Alec Dicus, Ben Alstadt and Caleb Stack. Sophomore Wyatt Endens is new to the squad this season as well.

Returning letterwinners for the Tigers are as follows: Sophomores Weston Rose and Clay Karnes. Karnes was first team all-conference and a district qualifier and Rose was listed by Temple as a “big part of last year’s MOAC championship team”. Returning juniors are Gideon Johnson, Luke Eisnaugle and Sam Rigdon. Eisnaugle gained first team all-MOAC honors and qualified for districts last year. Rigdon was also named first team all-conference and a Crawford County all-star, in addition to qualifying for districts and being a team Most Valuable Swimmer. Senior leadership will come from Eli Skaggs, Landon Rose and Lucas Conner. Rose and Conner were both first team all-conference swimmers and district qualifiers. Skaggs qualified for districts and state competitions last season and was named to the MOAC first team, Crawford County all-star team and was the team’s Most Valuable Swimmer alongside Rigdon.

Galion’s girls squad has placed second in league competition in their two seasons in the MOAC. Last year, the girls finished 6-5 overall and 2-1 in league meets. Temple’s squad will be returning nine swimmers from the 2015-2016 year.

Newcomers to the water this season for the Tigers are freshman Harmony Lohr and junior Katlyn Kuehlman.

The sophomores returning this year are Sari Conner, Ashleigh Wright and Danielle Schneider. Wright was a second team all-conference swimmer last year and Conner qualified for districts in addition to making second team all-MOAC. Junior swimmers will include Allison Bauer, Megan Koselnik, Allison DeNero, Bri Streib and Elise Barnhart. Streib, DeNero and Barnhart all received second team all-league honors last season while Barnhart and DeNero went on to qualify for district competition. The seniors for the Tigers’ swimmers this season will be Alexis Link and Bri Wallis. Wallis was named first team all-conference, a Crawford County all-star and the team’s Most Valuable Swimmer in 2016 en route to qualifying for districts.

Galion’s season will begin on Tuesday Nov.29 at Ontario High School against the host Warriors. The first home meet of the year will be on Thursday Dec.8 against league rival, the Marion Pleasant Spartans.