“Improvement” and “numbers” have been the watchwords for the Oxford swimming and diving team this summer.

Swimming and diving participants have shown improvement over the two months of the season and this year’s numbers have increased, making the participation level the highest it has been in recent years. The team participates in the Butler County Swim League, which is holding its league championship meets this week.

Stephen Pasquale is in his sixth season as the OSDT swimming coach and diving coach Lisa Werwinski is a Miami University student and diver for the RedHawks’ intercollegiate team. Pasquale also serves as the swimming coach for Talawanda High School’s team.

“We have improved each week,” Pasquale said of his summer charges. “We’ve been together nine weeks but the first meet came after only two weeks. I’m pleased with the way the swimmers came through the first half.”

Despite early struggles, Pasquale noted that his swimmers finished with a 7-1 record in their eight meets as they headed into this week’s league championships. That lone loss came in the second meet of the season with about half the team gone due to vacations and other obligations.

“Since then, we have won six in a row. It’s been a good stretch,” he said.

Pasquale has seen the program grow in his six years as OSDT coach to the current 128.

Werwinski has also seen numbers go up for the diving team in her two years as summer coach.

“Last year, I had 20 kids. This year, it’s 40,” she said. “It’s rewarding. Half the divers have never been off the board in their lives (before this season). It’s exciting. It is, by far, the largest 15-18 team in the league.”

Divers did not participate in all of the early BCSL meets but have come on strong as the season neared championship week.

“We won the last two dual meets by a good margin, about 20 points,” Werwinski said. “We have a lot of older kids in the 15-18 group and we have good leadership by the older kids, who help the younger ones.”

He offered a quick summary of his team with the names of one boy and one girl from each age group: 6-and-under: Finn Friede for the boys and Maren Patterson for the girls; 7-8: Craig Catania and Mercy Patterson; 9-10: Benj Crowder and MaryKate Huddleston; 11-12: Jay Madden and Gianna De Cello; 13-14: Adam Mandrell and Allie Marks; and 15-18: Kyra Reisenfeld and Evan Bader.

“I know I can count on one or two in each age group to score points for the team,” he said of the summer squad. “It’s fun coaching the 6 year olds. You can watch them grow up. I’ve been doing this for six years. I’ve seen Evan grow up. I remember him as a 10-and under. The 13-14 age group is one of the strongest age groups. They will be freshmen next year and it’s exciting for next winter.”

Werwinski is working on her undergraduate and graduate degrees simultaneously at Miami and will do her student teaching in the fall of 2013. She projects a strong Oxford diving team for the 2014 season and she hopes to find a job in the area after graduation in December of 2013 so she can coach those divers through the summer of 2014.

She said the divers support each other from the youngest to the oldest.

Werwinski noted that on July 9 at Rolling Hills, “there was only one board, so the kids had to stand in line and watch. They cheered for each other. Each week, I list ‘notables’ and it paid off against Rolling Hills. We won by 20 (points). Each kid had the best dive they could.”

She said the divers faced the strongest team in the league in its first meet but gained confidence and experience as the season went on.

Werwinski listed a few divers expected to leave a mark on the diving championships based on their season showing, particularly in those final two dual meets: Taft Marsh, who never had been off the board before this summer; Nathaniel Coffin, who on his first time in a meet took second place; Benji Robinson, 14, who had solid performances in all but two meets; Camille Flaspohler, who in the 11-12 girls category lost only one or two meets and improved over the season; and Samuel Hool, in the 9-10 group, who won last year and leads the largest group

“We were third last year, the first time we placed that high in a few years,” Werwinski said. “This year, they are ready to go. The kids just worked hard to do what they do.”