WILKES-BARRE – The Wilkes University men's and women's swimming teams are set to begin the 2023-24 season on Saturday under the direction of second-year head coach Christopher Paynter. The new season brings change to the program as 11 of the 13 student-athletes across the two teams will be competing in their first collegiate season and the programs switch leagues to the Landmark Conference.

"The excitement level is crazy high, especially going into our first meet this weekend, you can kind of just feel the anticipation on the pool deck," Paynter said. "I think we are all just ready to suit up and get some racing done."

The men's team returns two swimmers in senior Stephen Verosko (Gainesville, VA/Patriot) and sophomore Ashton Dainty (Scranton, PA/Scranton). Verosko specializes in the butterfly and freestyle while Dainty's main strokes are the freestyle and backstroke.

"They have goals of becoming a finalist at the conference meet, so I think that is awesome," Paynter said of Verosko and Dainty. "I think they can definitely accomplish that."

Paynter is looking to see how much the six newcomers to the men's program, from all over the United States, can help them out throughout the season.

The first-year additions to the Wilkes men's swimming team are Ben Carro (Berwick, PA/Berwick Area) (freestyle), Luke Donato (Westerly, RI/Westerly) (freestyle, butterfly, backstroke), John Evans (Wilkes-Barre, PA/Holy Redeemer) (freestyle, breaststroke), Owen Lewis (Ellicott City, MD/Howard) (freestyle, breaststroke), Kirkland Matlock (Carrollton, TX/Newman Smith) (freestyle), and Mason McCoy (Essington, PA/Interboro) (butterfly).

The women's team consists of five first-year student-athletes.

"This is a brand-new women's program basically," Paynter commented. "I want them to have fun with it, build the culture that they want to be a part of something that they will be proud of."

Emma Burlew (Effort, PA/Pleasant Valley) (distance, mid distance, breaststroke), Audrey Cornell (Clarks Summit, PA/Abington Heights) (mid distance, IM, breaststroke), Kiaya Daube (Scranton, PA/Holy Cross) (freestyle, butterfly), Mina Tutko (Easton, PA/Easton Area) (breaststroke, freestyle), and Brynn Ullerich (Omaha, NE/Marian) (IM breaststroke) make up the new-look Wilkes women's swimming roster.

The 2023-24 season begins Saturday at 1:00 p.m. with a home tri-meet at the Wyoming Valley Catholic Youth Center against two Landmark Conference opponents in the University of Scranton and Moravian University.

"It will be a good measuring point to see where we are at already just a couple of weeks into the season," Paynter said of the season-opening meet. "It will be a good test for us, and we can see kind of how much work we need to put in."

The full schedule put together by coach Paynter features competition against a lot of top teams every single weekend that will help the men's and women's teams see each week where they are at going into the mid-season meet and ultimately at the conference championships at the end of the year.

The Colonels host their mid-season meet this year at Wilkes-Barre Area High School. The event, named the Calum Lehman Memorial Invitational, will be competed across three sessions and two days on Saturday, November 18 and Sunday, November 19.

The season will conclude at the Colonels first-ever Landmark Conference Swimming & Diving Championships at the Mangione Aquatic Center in Baltimore, Md. from Thursday, February 15 through Sunday, February 18.