The Cabrini College swim team begins its season on Nov. 1 in a double duel versus Albright and Lebanon Valley colleges. Although the team is entering only its third season as a varsity sport, Cabrini has added a small men’s squad with hopes to expand the program.
Gina Treml, a 2004 Cabrini College alumni, pioneered a once club sport swim team into a bustling varsity sport.
“I’m very proud of this team now,” Treml said. “Leslie Danehy gave me permission to make some recruiting visits and all of a sudden we had a team. Since 2004, the team has doubled in size, I think it’s awesome.”
Coach Mike Kernicky enters his fourth season with Cabrini and has a very positive attitude for the team and his new male squad.
“I think we are going to surprise some people this season,” Kernicky said. “We have a lot of hard working swimmers this year, including the guys.”
In regards to the upcoming season, the swimmers are eager to get the wheels turning. In addition, the team has talked about planning a trip to Florida.
“This has been the best incoming freshman class,” Meghan O’Leary, junior education, history and psychology major said. “We’ve been having double practices, and we’re planning a fundraiser for our training trip Miami.”
Anne Konicki is a freshman exercise science major on the swim team. Although recovering from injury, Konicki is stoked about the team and her experience thus far. “I’ve never swam this much before, but the coaches are so nice and accommodating. I think we’ll have a great season, they’re a lot of talent around here.
Although the men’s team is very small, the men are outreaching for more swimmers to help build for the future. Sam Hammond, freshman criminology major is a shining star on the men’s squad.
“We’re trying to get more guys to come out for the team,” Hammond said. “We’re not bad now, but we need to get more swimmers. The more the merrier.”
Coach Kernicky believes the team will be competing a new higher level then ever before. Once a swimmer himself, Kernicky added an analogy about his thoughts on the “best athletes in the world.”
“So you have Michael Jordan, Michael Johnson, some of the greatest athletes to ever live. Jordan, Johnson and me are in a boat and we’ve got this global warming thing going on. What happens when the water rises? In the end, the swimmer wins,” Kernicky said.
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