The Marshalltown boys swim team returns much senior depth for the 2019-2020 season.

Last season the Bobcats qualified three swimmers for state in four events. In addition, Marshalltown qualified two relay teams.

“Our guys who have state experience look to be in better shape than they have been,” Marshalltown head coach Mike Loupee said. “That gives the coaching staff a little hope that we can move forward and that we can make some noise early in the season. The beginning of the season is always a little bit of guesswork in the first few meets to put people in until we have guys swim some events and kind of start shaking out the pecking order. We have to move guys around based on opponent and try to attack their strengths with our strengths.

“We’re fortunate this year that we have a very strong [and] deep senior class that has state experience. I think for the most part we’ll be able to match up very well against an opponent’s strengths.”

The Bobcats return nine seniors for the upcoming season. At the helm of that group are Carson Beals and Nash Perisho. Beals qualified in the state meet in the 100- and 200-yard freestyle as well as a part of the 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relay teams. Perisho qualified individually in the 200 freestyle and 100 freestyle and was part of both relay teams, too.

“Carson Beals swam four events at the state meet last year,” Loupee said. “We’re looking for him to show some good leadership early on. Nash Perisho swam four times at the state meet. They are both relatively versatile and we can plug them in in a number of events.”

Marshalltown broke the school record in both the freestyle relays and return three members from each relay team in Beals, Perisho and Marcus Barker.

“The last couple of years we have been real strong in the 200-yard freestyle and 400-yard freestyle relays,” Loupee said. “We were fortunate to break the school record in both of those events last year. Our record board is pretty strong so anytime we break a school record that’s a great swim.”

In addition to the seniors, according to Loupee, the team’s younger swimmers add to the team’s depth.

“Tyler Downing looks to have a much larger role in middle distance and some stroke events,” Loupee said. “Brock Keeler has worked real hard and each year showed steady movement. He’s going to be an important piece for us as we work and move chess pieces around in the lineup.

“Ethan Benscoter has developed into a strong swimmer for us. He’s got great versatility. We [also] have two sophomores that went to the state meet last year as a freshman, Marcus Barker and Andrew Seberger.

According to Loupee, the main emphasis in the season will be developing a medley relay team.

“The medley relay has not been strong for us and that kind of sets the tone of the meet,” Loupee said. “I think psychologically it’s difficult to not win that first event and try to roll after that. We were fortunate last year that we were strong in the 200 free and the IM and the 50 so we could recover fairly quickly.

“This year we are going to experiment a little bit and see if we can be a little bit more competitive in the medley to start the meets. Other than that, we have got to find out No. 2 and No. 3 guys especially in the individual medley, the backstroke and the breaststroke. Those are my areas of concern at this particular point in time.”

Marshalltown will host its first swim meet of the season on Tuesday starting at 5:30 p.m.

“We have the core makings of a strong championship type team but we have to develop that into a good dual meet team,” Loupee said. “I’m guardedly optimistic on our depth. It’s a long season. Guys get hurt, kids get sick, it’s the cold and flu season we train over two major holidays. Having the kids here available to practice is huge. There’s a lot of question marks before we swim in February.”