They set out to change that this summer. The Braves recruited several girls from other sports, including the soccer and volleyball teams, to increase their roster size to 11 this season.
“The swimmers did all of the recruiting,” said Braves coach Carrie McGuire. “They talked to their friends, they talked to their neighbors, they talked to kids at school, and just really tried to encourage people to give it a try. And then once they got there, encouraged them to stay so it’s been really fun to watch them grow the team, and watch them enjoy it and find the fun in it.”
Shawnee’s strength in numbers is paying off in the form of making history and bringing home hardware this winter.
The Braves won the girls swimming Central Buckeye Conference championship last weekend for the first time in school history — a rare feat for the program that began more than 40 years ago.
“It was a really fun meet because it came down to the last race, so we’ve kind of been calling it like the buzzer beater of swimming,” McGuire said. “If we wouldn’t have won that last relay, we wouldn’t have won the meet, so there was a lot on that race, but it was really exciting. The girls were really excited, really proud of themselves. We were really proud of them.”
Overall, they’ve won seven of the 12 meets they’ve entered this season, as well as two second-place finishes.
On Sunday, they won the Clark County Championship for the first time in at least 20 years — if not longer as Shawnee’s records go back to 2006, McGuire.
They’re led by junior Lola Derr, who won two individual events and was a member of two championship relays at both the CBC and Clark County Championships. She also recently set a school record in the 200 freestyle and earned CBC Swimmer of the Year honors.
A year ago, she advanced to the Division II state meet in both the 200 Individual Medley and the 200 breast stroke.
“She’s put in a lot of time in the off-season,” McGuire said. “She’s really focused. She’s still trying to figure out what her events are, so she’s swimming a variety of events, but has found success in a lot of them, and is enjoying it too, which is nice to see.”
Braves freshman Maddi Lee also won two events and was a member of two championship relays at both the CBC and Clark County Championships. She set a CBC Meet record in the 500 freestyle.
“Maddi came in like she has something to prove,” McGuire said. “She’s really impressive. She’s a true competitor. She just wants to race and wants to do well.”
Derr and Lee were both members of the Springfield YMCA team that competed at the 2025 YMCA National Short Course Swimming Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina, last summer.
Braves junior Avery Young and freshman Elizabeth Hill each placed in the top-3 in their individual events at the Clark County meet and were members of the two championship relay teams with Derr and Lee.
The team set a meet record in the 200 free relay at the Clark County Championships.
Young, the squad’s captain, is “truly the heart of the team,” McGuire said.
“She has done a great job recruiting,” McGuire said. “She gets people to come to practice, to enjoy it, to swim well. She’s really encouraging.”
The best part about the CBC and Clark County championship runs, McGuire said, is that it took the entire team to accomplish it.
“It took a lot,” she said. “It wasn’t just our top club swimmers; our non-year round swimmers had to perform really well too, and move up in places and get lifetime bests. They all showed up and did exactly what we needed them to do to win.”
A year after barely fielding a team, Shawnee isn’t just winning races — it’s building something that looks like it’s here to stay.
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