Justine DiFilippo
The pool in the Dixon Center has been a home-away-from-home swimming pool to residents, commuters and people in Cabrini’s surrounding communities. Now the pool will be home to the first ever Cabrini women’s swim team.
The team will be joining the division III Pennsylvania Athletic Conference with Misericordia and Arcadia. The Lady Cavaliers will compete in swim meets with other teams from around the area, outside of their conference.
Leslie Danehy, associate director of athletics and senior women’s administrator, said, “There are over 100 schools within two hours of Cabrini with swim teams. As soon as there are four teams in the PAC, the team will be able to compete for the PAC championship.” Danehy believes that the Cabrini swim team could be competing for a championship soon because Alvernia has expressed interest in starting a swim team that would join the PAC.
“Recruiting and open tryouts will be used to acquire 10-15 swimmers for the team,” Danehy said. “We are in the process of hiring a coach and are awaiting approval from the vice president.” The swim team will affect the open hours of the pool. For instance, the pool will be closed from Monday to Friday from 3to 7 p.m. for swim practices. On Saturday Feb. 9, the pool will be closed for the first swim meet held at the Dixon Center. “With the approval of the administration and students’ positive responses, the athletic department is very excited about having a new team.
Besides for open swims, there are many more activities that swimmers who use the Dixon Center pool can partake in. The pool offers fitness and workout swims at several different times. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8:30 and 9:30 a.m. there are water aerobic classes that are an hour long each. On Tuesdays there are two classes run by an arthritis foundation. They specialize in water exercise for people with some physical disabilities. The classes are held at 9 and 10a.m. The classes both last one hour each.
A new feature at the pool is a yardage indicator that runs along the side of the pool. The purpose of the indicator is that when a person swims a lap, they can figure out how many yards they swim and record them. According to Colleen Poole, aquatics director, “There will be a reward for the person who swims the most yards.” For swimmers who swim a lot of yards and have good endurance, there will be an opportunity this summer that they can try.
Poole said, “This summer there will be many people swimming in a contest called the Oceans of South Jersey.” The schedule for swimming the Oceans of South Jersey will be displayed in March near the pool.
