Severna Park High School swimmers Sarah (left) and Emily Lloyd each won state titles last season for the Falcons and are hungry for more.
I caught up with Severna Park High School swimmers Sarah and Emily Lloyd minutes before the Falcons' big quad meet with Annapolis, South River and Broadneck at the Arundel Olympic Swim Center on Friday afternoon.
The twin sisters are sophomores and each won two individual
state titles last year. Severna Park coach Mike McTammany has coached them at the club level (SPA) for the last 10 years.
"I can't tell them apart for the life of me," he said. "Even though they're just sophomores, they have years of swimming experience and the other kids feed off that. They lead by example and have a lot of influence on the team as a whole."
We didn't have much time to chat because the teams were gearing up for the biggest meet of the year. Of the four girls teams, two were undefeated and the other two had one loss each. The boys squads carried very similar records.
Q: What was your reaction when the county made swimming a varsity sport last year?
S: Everyone in SPA was going for it so it was very exciting.
E: It's not like it was expected but when it finally came, we were like, 'OK, let's do it.' Since we were freshmen, we hadn't really thought about it before it happened.
Q: What's this season been like?
E: It's been a great season so far and this is our first big meet of the year so hopefully, we'll do well.
S: The year has gone as we expected. I love high school swimming because I get to compete with all my friends.
Q: Your thoughts on coach McTammany?
E: He was our swimming coach when we were young. Then he coached at SPA for two years but he coached the older kids and we didn't get to hang out with him like we do now. He's really fun and he makes practice fun.
Q: You've been swimming with SPA since you were seven. When did you start swimming?
S: In our neighborhood, they started a river swim team on the Severn River and we got involved in that when we were three or four. We did that for a couple of years and it was so fun, we joined a regular swim team.
Q: Is it a coincidence that you guys swim opposite events (Emily -- freestyle, backstroke; Sarah -- butterfly, breaststroke)?
S: Yeah. When we were nine, we shifted to other events and it was cool. There really wasn't a sibling rivalry because we didn't really care who won when we were young.
E: I remember Sarah taught me how to do backstroke and she ended up being bad at it and it was my best stroke so I guess everything always works out.
Q: I know you're twins, who's older?
S: She's older by six minutes.
E: But she's taller.
Q: What are your goals for this season? Can the Falcons repeat as state champions?
S: I think we have the depth. Everyone has been dropping their times.
E: This is a big meet but next week is also huge and it keeps getting bigger from there. It's been a great experience
so far and we hope it gets better. We'll find out in about an hour.
*Results of the meet will be posted later this evening.