The University of Tampa women’s swim team won the overall Sunshine State Conference Championship and the men’s team came in second. This was the first year that at least half of the schools in the SSC had a swim team; therefore, the SSC was finally eligible to hold conference championships in swimming. Freshman Heather Glenday won the 500 free and the 1,650 free races, and senior Chris O’Linger won the 1,650 free race for men.
“Heather is one tough girl,” said Coach Ed Brennan. “She is the strongest girl in the weight room, and probably stronger than some of the guys.”
Glenday’s mother swam at St. John’s University and swam against a school in New York City that Brennan coached at the time.
“Thirty years later, she still recognized me and I recognized her, and that was part of the reason we were able to get her daughter,” said Brennan.
Senior Chris O’ Linger has also had a successful season.
“Chris has played on our club team since he was 11 years old, and one of our assistant coaches, Jim Kiner, coached him in high school,” said Brennan. A transfer from the University of Florida, Brennan added, “you truly can’t replace him.”
“Heather and Chris were the highlights of the NCAAs for us,” said Brennan. The men’s team finished 15th overall and the women’s 13th at the NCAA Championships in San Antonio, TX.
“After losing 10 seniors, this was definitely a rebuilding year. We also went from 22 players to 13 because the qualifying times became so much more challenging.”Even still, two top-15 NCAA finishes is very respectable. Brennan credits his assistant coaches for much of the team’s success.
“No other Division II school has the staff that I have,” said Brennan. “I am thankful that I have three assistants that all swam here. There is a lot of loyalty with them,” added Brennan.
Brennan went on to point out that UT is at a major disadvantage compared to Nova Southeastern and Florida Southern because of the lack of funding.
“It is going to be extremely difficult to compete against Nova and Florida Southern because they get six more men’s scholarships and six more women’s scholarships than we get each year.”
Generally, UT gets at least one top-10 finish, and sometimes both the men and the women finish in the top-10, but this year, it was not possible.
“It is unfortunate that now that there is finally conference championships, that this has been the weakest men’s team in a dozen years,” said Brennan.“Both teams did really well, but our goal is always to finish in the top-10, and we weren’t able to get that done this year.”
John Hilsenroth can be reached at jhilsenroth@spartans.ut.edu.