The University of Tampa swim teams will compete against Sunshine State Conference rival Rollins this weekend in Winter Park, Fla., and then will not see any action until Dec. 11, when they will go up against Wright State here in Tampa.
After that, December 17-19 is the Nova Southeastern Invite to end the 2010 portion of the season.
The teams have had a busy season so far, having competed every weekend since Oct. 9. One of the last two meets was against the Savannah College of Art and
Design, where the women won 147-107 and the men lost 143-119. It was a hard loss for the men’s team.
“Since this is the first time our men have ever lost to Savannah, it’s a tough one to take,” Coach Brennan said.
Last weekend both men’s and women’s teams swept Saint Leo in the first road meet of the season. Freshmen Catherine Patrell and Allison Noe are positive about the team, who is still undefeated. “Everyone’s doing pretty well,” Noe said.
Patrell echoed Noe’s thoughts on the season thus far. “[We’re] feeling good,” Patrell added.
One of the contributing factors to their success is that the swimmers know they have the full support of their teammates.
“At the beginning of the year, I wanted us to work on our cheering. I think we keep getting better at supporting each other,” Noe said.
The past meet against Saint Leo posed a challenge for the Spartans due to the weather.
“It wasn’t the best weather outside. [But] everyone did well for the conditions,” Noe said.
The “conditions” Noe mentioned was in reference to the chilly November weather. The highs were in approximately the mid-60s, when all the previous meets had averaged in the 80s, a significant difference. But the teams pulled, through, beating their SSC opponents by 112-87 on the men’s side and 117-68 on the women’s.
The wins against Saint Leo bring the women’s record to 5-0 and the men to a 3-2 record.
“After graduating nine men from last year’s team, I guess I’ll have to finally admit we’re in a rebuilding year. Considering [Chris] O’ Linger and [Hunter] Lineback are seniors, that’s pretty scary,” Brennan said. “We will need to have a great recruiting year if we are going to continue to be a top-10 team nationally.”
It will be a tough loss since Olinger and Lineback are both All-American swimmers, not to mention leaders on the team. Coach Brennan praised sophomores David Humphrey and Felipe Manzo for their success this season, as well as junior Andrew Johnson.
However, the younger swimmers on the team are going to have to start stepping up to keep the men in a competitive position.
“We haven’t heard much from the freshman and I just hope they come around in the second semester,” Brennan said.
On the other side, the women’s team is having another very successful season behind swimmers such as seniors Ellie Eshleman and Kelsey Lubbers.
The two have come through with big points for the squad, as well as sophomore Kristine Kassl, who is having an even better year than her All-American campaign last year.
The female freshmen are seeing a lot of success too, with Lisa Bero, Heather Glenday and Alex Hipolito. Another key swimmer to look for is transfer student and junior Caroline Belli, who has been sidelined with an injury.
“[She] is coming around and will be a big part of our national team,” Coach Brennan said.
With all this talent, Coach Brennan has high hopes for the upcoming Rollins meet.
“I have to expect [the women] will be able to handle Rollins, as will our men,” Brennan said.
This season the Rollins men’s team is 0-3 and the women’s team has two losses and one tie so far, so it looks good for the UT teams this weekend.
However, looking ahead to Wright State in December, this will be a bigger challenge seeing as Wright State is a Division I team. Additionally, both the men’s and women’s swim teams have fallen to Wright State in the past few seasons, which bodes for a tough match-up.
UT teams have nearly a month off to rest up after a busy October and November and prepare for their challenge with Wright State.
April Weiner can be reached at april.weiner@spartans.ut.edu.