The men’s and women’s swim teams are genuinely excited about the season ahead and the responsibilities it brings.
The first meets of the season for the swim teams were against the University of Scranton and Fairleigh Dickinson University on Saturday, Oct. 22. The men lost 64-30 against Scranton but came back to beat Farleigh Dickinson 53-32. The women lost to both opponents by scores of 65-29 and 56-39, respectively.
“I am incredibly excited about the season,” Tim McCann, sophomore history major, said. “I’m one of the older kids on the team now so I feel like I have more responsibility. It’s just a lot of fun to be here and it’s one of the things I love doing.”
On the two teams, there are a combined nine freshmen this year. For the women’s side there are five, a number that includes Rebecca Barrett, a freshman political science major from Wilmington, Del.
“Being a freshman on the team is pretty great,” Barrett said. “I got to meet a lot of new people and it’s nice coming in and having a family-like situation where you get to meet everyone and everyone is welcoming.”
Although the first meet is important and exciting, the meet that seems to have most of the swimmers excited is the Grove City championships.
Kimberly Crowther, sophomore special education and elementary education major, is particularly excited about the Grove City championships.
“Last year it was the best meet that I have ever been to in my life,” Crowther said. This year, Crowther is ready to make it to the top 16 for breast stroke.
The Grove City championship is made up of two conferences and every swim team they compete against participates as well. The meet is at the end of the year so they are eager to see how their young team will fare against all the other swim teams.
“This season is going to be a little tricky because we are a young team so we’re not looking to win a lot of meets,” McCann said. “It’s more of just getting our personal times down to where they need to be and staying in shape.”
Many of the members from last year were seniors so the focus for this season is to build up the team. There is some hope according to Walter Jesuncosky, senior history major and sports management minor.
“It’s a young team but it’s a lot of potential so it should be interesting,” Jesuncosky said.
Jesuncosky is excited about competing especially because this is his first year back. He suffered from shoulder and knee injuries in the past, which prevented him from swimming. The injuries are still currently bothering him but since it’s his last year, he’s fighting until he finishes the season.
The seniors on the team admit that they are going to feel some nostalgia after leaving the team. After this season they are most likely not going to swim as a sport but more of a hobby. This is why they are excited and want to push through any obstacle in their way and have a great year.
One thing all the teammates can agree on is working hard in practice.
“It’s a lot of hard work during practice,” Crowther said. “It’s a lot of time so you really need to put a lot of effort into it and work really hard during practice.”
The swim team as a whole practices every night Monday through Friday. They also have morning practices on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. A normal practice for them consists of some drills and some laps in the pool.
“Swim as hard as you can in practice until you die pretty much,” Jesuncosky said jokingly.
The members on the swim team this year are young but they are working hard to prove that a young team can still do well.
