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The swimming and diving teams have a lot to live up to after their performance in the SBC championships last season.
At the event, they set 35 school records, while the men’s team won the championships and the women’s team finished in second place.
The men’s and women’s team start this year’s SBC Championships tomorrow and believe they can repeat their success.
“I expect both the men and women to win the meet,” said captain Olivia Dean. “All year long we’ve been working on performing together as a team and I think we need to take that a new level during the conference meets.”
Dean, a senior, epitomizes the team goal of balance. She races in butterfly, freestyle and individual medley (IM) events. At last years championships, she won the 200-IM with a new school record of 2:02.80.
“We always want to have good balance,” said Brian Schrader, head coach. “Having good sprinters and good distance swimmers makes it easier to compete in dual meets or championship meets.”
Schrader was named SBC Men’s coach of the Year in 2009 in his third season as the Pioneers in the coach.
In the pool, the team’s repeat success will rely on a balance between an array of swimmers on both the men and women’s team, but it’s not only in the pool where balance allows DU’s swimming and diving members to excel.
The College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) recently named both teams on the Scholar-Athlete All-American list.
“Everyone here likes to perform in the class and in the pool,” said Scott Madaras, a junior.
The men’s team finished tied for No. 6 in the nation with a GPA of 3.25, while the women’s team finished 13th with a GPA of 3.42.
“It’s always good to get recognition in academics,” Schrader said. “Academics is definitely something you want to be known for and our goal is always to be in the top five, which we are not far away from.”
“We have always had a high importance on academics, which says a lot about everyone on the team,” Dean said, who finished with a team-high 4.0 GPA last season was given the team’s hardest worker award.
Going into the conference championships it is important for the team to step out of the shadows.
“Last year’s men’s team had five seniors who were really motivated to lead the team and those guys stepped up and set a standard for the team to follow,” Schrader said. “The juniors and seniors are doing that again this year.”
In last year’s performance, the team set 17 SBC records, nine for the women and eight for the men.
“It has been really nice to see other people step up and fill the void that was left after last season,” Madaras said. “Everyone has stepped out of the shadow really well.”
In order for Madaras and the men’s team to repeat their first place finish, they will need to find success in the relay events.
Last year Madaras was on four relay teams, the 200, 400, and 800 Free Relays and the 200-Medley Relay.
“This year, Scotty has done a nice job leading the team in the water, but also in the weight room,” Schrader said.
The Pioneers set new school records in all four events and in two of the events, the 400 free relay and the 800 free relay the Pioneers set a conference record finishing the relay’s in 2:58.10 and 6:26.01, respectively.
“The relays are worth double what the individual races are worth so the more relays you win, the better the chance you have,” Schrader said.
The women also set conference records in both the 400 and 800 freestyle relays.
“We have been setting a standard for winning certain relays,” Schrader said.
As for the divers, Schrader acknowledged that, “they definitely need to have a big performance.”
Junior Cody Stambaugh has led the team all season and the expectations for him in the SBC championships are high.
“This is a key event for Cody and I think he will be diving injured,” Schrader said. “But Cody has an opportunity to win both board events at conference and he has set himself up to do that this season.”
With a possible conference repeat on the horizon, the Pioneers swimming and diving teams appear to be a program headed in the right direction.
“It is good practice to swim against bigger programs, because that is the direction our program is headed,” Dean said about last month’s Shamrock Invitational where the both the men’s and women’s team competed against Iowa, Missouri and Notre Dame.
As for these weeks’ conference championships, Schrader feels it is a three-team race between Western Kentucky, North Texas and DU.
“It really could come down to the difference of about 20 points,” Schrader said.
“I think a first place finish is definitely possible,” Madras said.
