CRANBERRY TWP — Don’t let the Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic girls swimming team’s status as a first-year program fool you.

The Trojanettes are looking to make an impact Thursday and Friday at the WPIAL Class AA Championships at the University of Pittsburgh’s Trees Pool.

Sophomore Brooke Carmazzi leads that group, seeded fourth in the 200-yard individual medley and seventh in the 100 breaststroke.

“My training has been very intense this year and I haven’t done as well in dual meets as I had hoped,” said Carmazzi. “But I am ready for WPIALs. My goal is to get to states in both events.”

Carmazzi was one of three girls from North Catholic to compete at the district meet last year as independent swimmers. Joining her were Tatyana Cook and Lena Clerici, who will also be swimming this week at Pitt. Carmazzi qualified for the state meet in the breaststroke after placing eighth as a freshman.

“All (three) did well last year and that got the school to put a team together,” said CWNC coach T.J. Barry. “We have 13 girls this year and considering we have limited practice time at the Cranberry YMCA, they’ve done a fantastic job.”

More teammates have added to the enjoyment of high school swimming for Carmazzi.

“It’s definitely been a better experience this year, swimming with the girls and boys,” she said. “Last year, we didn’t have enough girls to swim any relays. This year, we are swimming in all three and we’re excited about that.”

Carmazzi will swim in the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays along with Cook, Clerici and Erin Paul.

The Trojanettes compete in Section 2, but don’t have a pool of their own. Barry had just three boys to work with this season. He expected some growing pains, but hopes the future includes more swimmers and more WPIAL-qualifying times.

“To have some of our girl swimmers do well at WPIALs, it can do tremendous things for our program,” Barry said. “I’ve gotten so many calls from students who were thinking about going to Oakland Catholic (all girls) or Central Catholic (all boys) because they didn’t know we had a team. They are now thinking about going to school here where they can all swim under the same flag.”