This winter season, the Lewis Swim team faced a challenging season, but the swimmers have improved nonetheless, dropping times, pushing limits, and increasing stamina. 

The Lewis Swim team of 2025-2026 is relatively small, with only 16 swimmers making up boys and girls varsity. The team is coached by Coach Vincent Cervone, for his second year with the team. The Boys’ Varsity team consists of the Swim captain, senior Owen Sheppard, and swimmers junior Raymond Truong, sophomore Bradley Sanchez Mancera, junior Noah Dinh, freshman Luke Dinh, and freshman Dominic Grajkowski. The Girls’ Varsity team is led by Swim Captain senior Lam Ha and also features junior Ruth Ephrem, junior Lam Nguyen, freshman Xuan Ha, sophomore Olive Kamppila, junior Addison Dunlap, freshman Chloe Park, senior Isabella De La Fuente, junior Lola Harrer, and senior Keiko Sanders.

Coach Vincent Cervone has pride for the team’s accomplishments but also addressed the challenge of their small size. “Despite us being the smallest team in our district, everyone shows up and gives their best effort in both practice and at meets,” Cervone said. 

The team is lead by captain Owen Sheppard, who encouraged his teammates to celebrate their individual successes. “A lot of people this year just focused on getting best times, which was great. It doesn’t matter how small we are; it’s best to focus on personal best,” Sheppard said.

Ephrem, who specializes in freestyle, has been on the Lewis Swim team for three years now similarly stresses the Lancer swimmers’ dedication. “We are small but mighty and we always do our best to improve our times every meet with confidence,” Ephrem said.

Lewis’ team has faced a range of challenges this season that began with its small size in comparison to other teams. The Lancers lack the year-round swimmers that make up their competition, which means that most swimmers unfairly fall behind in practice time compared to swimmers at other schools. Following their meets, just looking at the score sheets can be discouraging to new swimmers debating committing to the Lancers, or it can cause swimmers to not return to the team.

Those Lancers who maintain their commitment to the team share a sense of positivity towards their individual accomplishments and the achievements of teammates.

Ephrem’s favorite accomplishment this season has been competing in the 500 meter freestyle. Ephrem shares her memory of competing in the swim meet against the Mount Vernon Majors. Her swim cap fell off during her 100 meter freestyle event, “Yet I kept pushing,” Ephrem said.

One major hardship the Lancers faced this season was Sheppard’s shoulder injury. Sheppard specializes in the 500 freestyle and 200 IM events. Prior to his injury, he made regionals every year in 500 Freestyle and the last two years in the 200 IM. 

While the shoulder injury affected Sheppard’s practice schedule, he continued to compete in his events and take one for the team.

Sheppard has been on the Lewis Swim team for four years now and a year-round swimmer until this year. He swam for Potomac Marlins since age ten, for year-round and competed with summer swim on the Springfield Tiger Sharks since age 5. The appeal of Lewis’ swim team was strong for Sheppard. “I had a couple friends on the team while I was still in middle school,” Sheppard said.

When Sheppard reflects on his accomplishments with the Lancers, he reflects on his personal bests from last year. “Last year, at Districts, I placed fourth in both of my events, 500 freestyle and 200 IM, and made regionals,” Sheppard said. His best time for 500 Freestyle was set last year with 5:10, and his best for 200 IM last year was 2:07. 

Nguyen, who specializes in the 200 freestyle, finds her most memorable swim meet to be against Justice High School. “I placed second in the 200 free with a time of 3:19. I cut 12 seconds, which made me really proud of my progress,” Nguyen said. 

The Lewis swim team ranked 8th place at Districts on Jan 30, 2026. Swimmers Noah Dinh, Luke Dinh, Grajowski, Kamppila, Dunlap, Park, Ha, and Sanders all advanced to Regionals on February 13 at Oakton.

All Lancer swimmers came a long way this winter season, improving times, developing techniques, and making new friends.