LOWELL — The Lowell High swimming and diving program was stuck in 2019.

It was the last time the program sent an athlete to states, the last year competing in their on-campus pool and the start of the COVID pandemic that ultimately reduced their numbers.

Lowell desperately needed a spark, and the Red Raiders received one from two very different sources.

Maddie Akashian, a rising freshman star in breaststroke, and Miranda Strunk, a first-year senior with six months of diving under her belt, have revitalized a Lowell program that is suddenly back on the map.

With Akashian and Strunk qualifying for the Div. 2 state competition, Lowell placed fourth at the Merrimack Valley Conference championship competition. The Raiders did it with 27 athletes in their program, the most since 2019.

“It all has a lot to do with them and what they model for other swimmers,” Lowell head coach Jen McGlauflin said of Akashian and Strunk.

Akashian and Strunk may come from different backgrounds in the pool, but they have identical effects on the rest of McGlauflin’s team.

“They’ve been a role model for other kids, showing that it’s possible,” the coach said of qualifying for states. “If no one goes there, they can’t see what’s possible.” They are both very good role models. »

Akashian, who dominated the 100 breaststroke this fall, recently placed first in the MVC competition with a time of 1:17.00. Her lightning-fast mark of 1:15.95 qualified her for Sunday’s sectional tournament at MIT as well as the Nov. 10 state meet at Boston University. She will be joined by Strunk, who placed fifth at the MVC meet (181.25) in the 1-meter dive and qualified for states with a 208.85 in six dives and 338.75 in 11 dives.

Akashian has been participating in breaststroke since he was 8 years old. Her mother, Lauren, swam collegiately in the event at Holy Cross and ultimately inspired her to try.

From ages 8 to 12, Akashian swam at the North Shore Swim Club, competing against the area’s top talent while honing his skills. She recently joined a new club team, Crimson, where she will go straight from the Lowell YMCA to her weekly two-hour workout every Wednesday.

“It’s very tiring,” she says, laughing.

But it’s clear that the extra work made her the competitor she is today.

“She’s as fast as she is because of all the experience she has outside of the team,” McGlauflin said.

“It makes me better because I swim with different types of people and faster people,” Akashian added. “I also swim against people from Andover and Chelmsford, which allows me to experience different speeds and different competitions.”

Akashian was the only eighth-grader on Lowell’s team when she made her high school debut last fall.

“I was scared, but they were very welcoming so it was fun to do,” she said. “I was able to experience things that no one else had.”

This experience has given him a definite advantage in the lane this season.

“Last year she was a little more shy even in competition, and I think she has more confidence this year and with this year under her belt,” McGlauflin said. “She’s really taken it to the next level.”

Akashian is focusing on his details ahead of Sunday’s sectional meet.

“I’m working on my takedowns because that’s where I’m falling behind and so are my turns,” Akashian said. “Those are two important things to progress when you run.”

With three more years on the horizon, the future is certainly bright for Akashian. But for Strunk? The senior diver plans to leave it all behind in the final competitions of her high school diving career.

“I’m working on cleaning up some of my dives,” Strunk said. “Working on the mistakes I’ve made in some of my past competitions and making sure I’m confident in the list I’ve prepared and know what order I’m going in and each dive I can successfully complete .”

Strunk’s journey to Sunday’s sectional competition began last winter. A longtime gymnast, Strunk made a last-second pivot to try something new.

“I was pretty sick all winter and couldn’t do gymnastics like I wanted to,” she recalls. “I said to myself: ‘What if I tried diving?’ »

This is how Strunk became one of the finest divers in the state. She started diving with Dive 603, a club program based in Nashua, New Hampshire, and decided to try out for the high school team this fall.

“I am very happy to have joined this team for my senior year,” she said. “It wasn’t something I expected to do, but something I’m very happy I did.”

Strunk showed up to tryouts with a plan to make states. Unaware of his abilities, McGlauflin hesitated.

“She had a plan and she knew what she wanted to do,” McGlauflin said. “The first day of training, she told me, ‘Here are my goals and here’s how I’m going to get there.’ This doesn’t happen often.

It didn’t take Strunk very long to reach the 185-point mark required to qualify for states twice. The senior is seeded first for Sunday’s sectional competition with her eye-popping score of 338.75.

“It came pretty naturally,” she said. “There are some technical differences between diving and gymnastics, so learning an obstacle and learning how the board necessarily works and how you should use it rather than flipping straight up. It was a learning curve.

But aside from their differences in their respective paths to Sunday’s sectional competition, Akashian and Strunk have one trait in common.

“Basically, they’ll do anything I ask to help the team,” McGlauflin said. “They’re both really great kids.”