When you think about the middle of December swimming doesn’t usually come to mind, but the boys swim and dive season is well underway as they face Deerfield in a dual meet tonight at 5:30.

“It will be a good test to see where we are right now,” coach Kevin Auger said. “We hope to swim well there because it should help get everybody excited for their training during the winter break.”

After the Deerfield meet, the Kits will compete in a triangular meet at ETHS. The other two schools will be Loyola and Rockford Guilford.

The team is excited for the matchup, and is mainly worried about the strength of the Loyola team.

“Rockford Guilford is a pretty weak team right now and we should handle them pretty easily,” Auger said. “But Loyola always has a strong team and that should be a good battle.”

In the triangular format, Rockford Guilford actually helps Loyola. When Evanston defeats Loyola, it’s usually because they have more depth than the Ramblers. Since there are three teams in this format, the Kits only get two entries in the six lane pool. This should take away some of their depth.

Although ETHS has one of the strongest diving teams in the state, Loyola has one diver who could turn the tables.

“Loyola has a diver named Christopher Canning who could possibly win the state meet this year,” senior diver and recent University of Denver commit Turner Dobbs said. “That will definitely be a challenge for us, but our depth should help us.”

Last season, Canning finished second at the state meet to Hononegah senior Payton Staman. Canning was defeated by 6.9 points as Staman scored a 475.05 and Canning tallied a 468.15.

Some ETHS athletes to watch for the rest of the season are senior captains Evan Ziolkowski, Sean McGuire, Turner Dobbs and Thomas Fies.

Ziolkowski helps with the sprints, McGuire helps in the butterfly, Dobbs anchors the diving team and Fies assists in the backstroke along with the individual medley, senior Danny Managlia will be a leader in the butterfly and backstroke as well.

Standout divers junior Harel Anolick and sophomore Trevor Nelson hope to qualify for the state meet for the second year in a row in diving. They qualified with scores of 539.45 and 515.50 respectively last season according to ihsa.org.

So far this season the Kits have had a dual meet against state number 2 Naperville Central which they lost by a score of 122.5-63.5 and have participated in the Bronco Relays at Barrington High School.

After the triangular meet on Saturday, the team will travel to Niles West and face off against the Wolves on Jan 6.