Women’s Swimming & Diving has continued its already record-breaking season by sending seven girls to next month’s NCAA Division III National Championships in Indianapolis. The swimmers that have qualified include freshmen Emily Simon, Khamai Simpson, Alex Veech and Danielle Neu, sophomore Vicky Luan, junior Lauren Bailey, and senior Karen Meess. It is the first time any of the seven swimmers have competed at Nationals, and the first time the UR has been represented at the Nationals since the 2006-2007 season. This year’s swimmers are looking to overhaul the UR’s best ever performance of 8th place achieved by the Swimming and Diving team in the 1993-94 season. This year’s swimmers will come up against a couple of familiar faces from the UAA such as Emory, the University of Chicago, and Case Western University.
Campus Times had the pleasure of catching up with a couple of the swimmers to see what made this season so successful for them. A major factor that was brought up in in our discussion, was the ability of the coaching staff to recruit freshmen capable of filling the remaining spots in the freestyle and medley relays. Freshmen Emily Simon, Khamai Simpson and Alex Veech were the last pieces of the puzzle that the swim team had been trying to solve for the last couple of seasons. Junior Lauren Bailey, who’s had an astounding season thus far, breaking records left and right, has also attributed her personal and team’s success to the increase in workload that she and her team took on over the summer. Revised diet and workout plans led to major turnarounds in the team’s fortunes this season.
The girls have taken their qualification for the NCAA Nationals in stride and are taking their preparation as seriously as they can. With college students around the nation getting ready to head to tropical climates and party their tails off, the girls have decided to stick together and train. Their schedule for spring break will consist of daily workouts, team bonding activities, and going out on outings with their coaching staff.
The general consensus among the swimmers is that confidence is at an all-time high and that their coaches are doing what it takes to prepare them for a very successful showing at the NCAA Nationals.
On behalf of myself and the Campus Times staff, I’d like to wish the qualified swimmers the best of luck at Nationals!
Chtchekine is a member of the class of 2016.
