With the conclusion of last weekend’s 146-85 victory over Hamilton, the swimming & diving team has once again finished undefeated in dual meets this season. With strong all-around efforts, the team hopes to carry the season’s momentum into the upcoming state meets. The athletes have been training all season for the meets and have high expectations going into them. With much harder training this year, the team expects to do better or at least match last year’s fourth place showing.
As these final meets approach, the coaches have changed up the workouts, starting to taper them “so we’re at our peaks when States come around,” said sophomore diver Matt Culen.
The coaching staff led by Head Coach Shannon O’Brien and assisted by diving coach Maria Coomaraswamy-Falkenstein and Assistant Coach Daniel Traub have been working the team extra hard this year to make use of the incoming talent of the freshmen. “They’ve been pushing us to work a lot harder than last year,” said Culen.
Both O’Brien and the athletics trainers have been working really hard to get the maximum yield and the most efficient training for the team.
Although the team finished the year undefeated in dual meets, it took second in both the Liberty League Championships in Rochester on December 1 and 2 and the Kumpf Invitational held at RPI in early January.
For the men, seniors Kevin Sheridan, Nat Southwick, Mike Scibelli, and Russ Jarvis all held their own this season and often were the guys seen pushing hard during their team workouts. The States will help show whether or not that extra effort will pay off.
Captains Katherine Gifford and Karel Schnebele, both seniors and Marguerite Harrington, a junior, lead the women.
On the diving side of things, Culen and senior captain Greg Derevianko will be heading to Nationals after the rest of the team’s season has ended, although anyone attending States still has a possibility of qualifying at the last minute. Both Culen and Derevianko qualified for last year’s NCAA National Championships held in Minneapolis, Minn. and finished 10th and fourth, respectively.
The women have juniors Stephanie Tomasulo, Laural Pietrykowski, sophomore Rebecca Rancour, and freshmen newcomers Kelsey Manley and Cecilia Kopp all contributing to the squad.
The divers will attend the Falkenstein Diving Invitational in the Robison Pool this Saturday, and the teams will compete at States in Syracuse on December 21-24.
