Swimming and Diving Preview: Bobcats add 20 first-years to the mix
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Berry |
Cooper |
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Walsh |
Boyatsis |
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Johnson |
Drake |
The 2008-09 Bates men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams are looking to capitalize on significant improvements from last year’s season. Last season saw many new school records set, as well as tremendous success on both a personal and national level. Thirteen new school records were set (10 women and 3 men) and more than 100 lifetime bests were recorded. In addition, there were nine NCAA qualifying performances, including those from returners Annaliese Rudis (North Andover, Mass.) and Kelsey Lamdin (Brunswick, Maine) on the diving boards and Katelyn Drake (Hudson, Ohio) and Charlotte Green (New Canaan, Conn.) in the swimming pool. On a national level, Drake and Lamdin also secured All-American honors last season.
The individual success last season, however, did not translate into as many dual meet wins as the team would have liked. This year, the team looks to improve from a ninth-place (women) and 11th-place (men) finish in the conference while maintaining and setting new records and lifetime bests. The team lost some key seniors, but second-year head coach Peter Casares is encouraged by the tremendous size of his first-year class.
Twenty first-years have joined the 18 upperclassmen to fill out this year’s roster. Casares admits increased youth usually means less experience, but he will rely on his upperclassmen to help smooth the transition. On the men’s side, tri-captains Christopher Berry (Augusta, Maine), Nate Cooper (Chestertown, Md.) and William Walsh (Huntington, N.Y.) will set the tone, while tri-captains Alexis Boyatsis (Dover, N.H.), Bailey Johnson(Gardner, Mass.) and Drake will lead the women. Johnson sees the addition of the new first-years to be incredibly positive saying, “We graduated quite a few people and gained a huge class of freshmen, which will have an impact on our team dynamic and, I think, our team success.”
Coach, captains and returners alike believe in this year’s team’s potential and are looking forward to starting the season.
“I am confident our upperclassmen will lead both in the pool and out, helping our freshmen make the transition to college swimming and this level of competitiveness,” said Casares. “I also have great faith in the freshman class, that they can in fact swim like veterans… many of them have competed at the highest levels high school and club swimming have to offer, so they are well-equipped to handle the transition.
“It should be an exciting season with many challenges faced successfully. With the right attitude and some hard work, we should be turning some heads come February.”
Boyatsis agrees with her coach and believes the tone of this season is already different than in past seasons. “The enthusiasm was clear in our first practice. Returning swimmers blew away the times they set last year in our traditional first practice test set, and there is a level of encouragement among the swimmers that I haven’t seen before, especially in practice. We had great success at our conference meet last February, but I see even greater things to come.”
The swimming and diving team opens this weekend at Trinity with a tri-meet against Trinity and Wesleyan on Saturday at 11 a.m.