The Spartan swim team is in for a busy season this year as they set things into motion. Head coach Ed Brennan, along with assistant coaches Jimi Kiner, Phil Murray and Ryan Gober, will have a lot to live up to after last season. For 13 straight seasons, both the men and women’s swim teams have placed at the NCAA National Championships, which is no small feat of its own. The women’s team even went on to win the 800 meter freestyle relay at the NCAA National Championships with a time of 7:24.70.
The first meet of the season will be away against the Florida Southern Moccasins on Oct. 18. This will be followed by back-to-back home meets on Nov. 1 and 2 against Lynn University’s Fighting Knights and Indian River State College. Nov. 15 will be another home meet against Saint Leo. Nov. 22 and 23 will be away meets against Florida Tech and Nova Southeastern. These meets will be followed by a four-day invitational hosted by Nova Southeastern from Dec. 14-17. The last home meet of the season will be the Tampa Relay Invitational on Jan. 4 after the holidays. The last meet of the season will be away at Rollins vs. Kentucky on Jan. 11.
But all this is just a warm-up for the Sunshine State Conference and NCAA Championships to spotlight the best of the best from around the nation in February and March. The SSC meet determines who gets to proceed to the NCAA Championships and will be held in Orlando, Fla. The NCAA Championships will be held in Geneva, Ohio this year.
Since ten senior swimmers are gone, the rest of the swimmers, including Elias Dammann, will have to step up their game if they want to make up for the lost talent. However, with a roster of talent from around the world, making up for the lost swimmers should hopefully prove to only be a small challenge.
Between 6 a.m. practices and grueling workouts, the UT Spartans should be more than ready to handle whatever challenges come up in the next few months. With the new freshman talent, the Spartans may even be able to place higher in the NCAA championships this year than they did last year with the men coming in 15th and the women 13th.
The UT Spartans are looking at some major competition this year, but with hard work and determination they should be able to pull off enough victories to carry them to the NCAA championships and beyond.
Grant Pawlak can be reached at tshome2009@live.com