Both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams finished the 2015-2016 season with 7-3 records and placed sixth at the SUNYAC Championship in February. Last year was an improvement for both teams. The men, they won two more meets than the year prior, while the women’s team saw a big turnaround after finishing a disappointing 3-7 in 2015.
According to Mike Holman, the head coach for both teams, the goal is for each individual to keep improving and for the team to move up a spot or two in the standings.
“Individual improvement is going to be the thing first and foremost and that’s how we’re truly going to judge our success,” Holman said. “You [the athletes] have to commit what you need to improve and take ownership of it. If we’re doing that and getting better week by week, we’re pretty happy.”
One of the swimmers looking to show improvement this season is junior sprint freestyle swimmer Alex Kemper. His goals are the same as Holman’s: to show improvement and move up in the standings.
“We finished sixth last year in SUNYACs, this year I’d like to see us be fifth, fourth somewhere around there,” Kemper said. “Personally I’ve been getting my best times, I was happy with that. I would like to do better in some of my longer yards. We just got to make it better this year. As long as we do our best that’s all that we can ask for.”
During dual meets last season, the men’s and women’s teams both improved, winning more than they have been in previous years. This year it is about maintaining that good record and winning the meets they should be winning.
Swimming is one of the sports where it is easier to predict who is going to win the dual meets because it is known what each individual can do in the pool when it comes to their times. The mindset for each swimmer, male or female, is to do the best they can to try and get his or her best times and improve on past performances.
The extra work and preparation put in during the summer is going to be the difference between moving up in the rankings or staying in place. For example, Kemper lost weight during the summer which should help with his times while sophomore women’s swimmer Riley Synan worked a lot on turns and under-waters to help her achieve her goal of 56 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly.
Over past seasons, the women’s team has shown improvement, going from last to eight, to seventh, to sixth last year. Now the goal is to move up to fourth or fifth. The team is progressing after rebuilding a few years back and now the goal is to get into the top five.
The men are also hoping to make that leap this year as well into the top five which is a very realistic possibility. Injuries prevented them from accomplishing that in the SUNYAC Championships last year.
All the meets that come before the SUNYAC meet for the big one in February. The adjustments and improvements during that time are going to be the deciding factor in whether each team will place where it wants to at the end of the season. Since it is easier to expect what is going to happen at the dual meets as far as who will win, the main purpose is to just show improvement.
“It’s one of those sports where I know what they have and what their [ the other team’s] kids go as far as times are,” Holman said. “Usually during the season there’s not going to be a lot of variance there, hopefully there’s improvements for us as the year goes along and at the end of the year that’s where we are hoping for a big improvement. The main focus is that meet [ the SUNYAC Championships].”
Success in the SUNYAC Championship meet is going to define the success of the whole season for the men’s and women’s teams.
The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams have their first meet of the season on Oct. 19 on the road against RIT.
