Winning 18 of the past 19 regional swim championships and dominating the local competition this season might have taken a bit of the edge off this season's regional for the Notre Dame Academy swim team. But the Pandas might have gotten the motivation they needed before the season when the Kentucky High School Athletic Association expanded the number of swim regions from four to five.

        At the same time, the KHSAA cut the number of automatic qualifiers for the state meet from each region from three to two. That means swimmers who don't finish first or second must hope their times are low enough to rank among the 14 at-large qualifiers (up from 12) from around the state.

        Swimmers such as Notre Dame senior Janet Heil had to decide which events they had the best chance to finish at least second.

        “There's a lot more competition,” Heil said Wednesday, the day before this season's Region 4 meet started at Scott High School. It concludes Saturday. “It's really been a struggle to pick which events people are going to swim. You've got to really plan your events.

        “It really has affected how we do things. I knew at the beginning of the season that I would be swimming the 100 (-yard butterfly). Anything other than that, I had no clue. I had to pick and choose, and I decided on the 200 (individual medley), but it came down to the last day. That was last Wednesday. It was between the 200 IM and the 500 freestyle. I had done the 500 before, but I couldn't thoroughly predict how I would do in it.”

        Heil and junior Nicole Culbertson, the defending 50 freestyle regional champion, lead a Notre Dame team that is talented as usual and, with 37 swimmers and seven divers, deeper than normal. The number of swimmers available to fourth-year coach Karen Jones made decision-making difficult for her, too.

        “I really had a tough time putting the relay teams together because we have so many talented swimmers,” Jones said. “We definitely have the talent.”

        The Pandas depth was enhanced by an influx of accomplished freshmen led by Mallory Neltner, a transfer from Highlands who already had three years of varsity experience under her cap. She won regional championships in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke and earned the meet's Outstanding Swimmer Award last season. She went on to finish third in the state in the 100 backstroke. One of the two swimmers who finished ahead of her last season is an eighth-grader.

        “I'm just hoping to win the regional in my events,” Neltner said. “There's a lot of competition out there.”

        “We have so many girls on the team, and a lot of them are new and don't know what the regionals are like,” Heil said. “We still haven't lost that competitive spirit. We haven't let it go to our heads. We're not expecting too much, and we know that anything can happen.”

        Heil is hoping the Pandas make the state as a team and get a shot at dethroning six-time champion Sacred Heart Academy. Notre Dame, which has won eight state championships and finished fifth each of the past two seasons, lost to Sacred Heart at the All-Catholic Invitational in December. Jones admits Panda prospects are bleak at best at the state meet Feb. 23-24 at the University of Kentucky's Lancaster Aquatic Center.

        “They're just so strong and they have so much depth that I'm pretty confident in saying they're going to be state champions,” Jones said. “But you never know. If they have a relay team disqualified, they would lose a lot of points.”

        Heil points out the new rules could work in Notre Dame's favor at the state meet.

        “We have a huge team this year,” she said. “We could basically double the number of girls going, and with the new rule, it could cut back on their numbers. I think we have a realistic shot.”

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