With the men’s swim team’s regular season almost upon us, there’s a lot to look forward to this year.
With a host of new freshmen to fill in the gaps that were left by last year’s seniors, the team looks to have a strong but challenging year.
The opening meet will take place on Oct. 17 and the Spartans will be pitted against their SSC rivals, the Florida Southern Moccasins.
The Spartans suffered a defeat last year when they went up against the Moccasins so this matchup may prove to be one of their harder fought meets of the season.
While many of Tampa’s opponents remain the same with only one new contender added to the roster, the schedule is one of the most challenging the team has ever faced.
“Even when our opponents are the same, the schedule gets tougher every year. Our conference has become the most competitive in Division II, so there are few easy wins,” Ssaid head coach Edward Brennan.
The Spartans added Boston College to their regular schedule this year, beefing up their schedule. With 11 total meets as opposed to last year’s nine, the variety as well as the difficulty of the competition plays a factor this season.
“We added Boston College this year so our out of conference competitions will be challenging as well. We hope to repeat as women’s conference champions, but it’s even more competitive on the men’s side and a UT win would be an upset. Our national goal is to again finish in the top 10,” Brennan said.
Last year, the men finished second in the Sunshine State Conference (SSC) Championships with the women’s team taking the gold. The men finished in the top 10 in the NCAA Championships coming in ninth overall. With the added pressure of new competition, it will be even more difficult for the Spartans to repeat their solid performance once again this season.
“At this point I would have to say we’re weaker. We have no depth at backstroke and our breaststroke is a work in progress. It will be up to the freshman to turn that around. We are, as usual, very strong in the sprints and that makes our relays competitive on the national level,” Brennan said.
With 14 new freshmen to work with, the talent pool for the Spartans is anything but dry. Some of the new faces on the team include freshmen Jack Cassidy, Kevin Cooney, Eoghan Daly and Richard Gullage.
Cassidy is a very strong long distance swimmer, finishing his high school career with a time of 4:48.79 in the 500 freestyle and 1:47.39 in the 200 freestyle as well as an impressive time of 1:59.19 in the 200 IM. Gullage looks to be a strong swimmer as well with impressive times in a varied array of events. With a time of 53.40 in the 100 backstroke and a time of 21.38 seconds in 50 freestyle, he may very well be able to help fill in the gap the men’s team is experiencing with their backstroke times.
“We have a large freshman class and the biggest plus is in our distance freestyle group. Ultimately this freshman class will be an outstanding one it’s just a matter of how long it will take to develop them into scorers in this very competitive conference,” Brennan said.
While the Spartans have a large base of new talent, they also have six seniors with impressive race times themselves.
Senior Khalid Aldaboos clocked in last year with an impressive 50 Freestyle time of 20.51 and a time of 45.65 in the 100 freestyle.
Kyle Freudiger remains a top long distance swimmer with a 500 freestyle time of 4:41.75 and a 200 fly time of 1:53.82 in his sophomore year alone.
With the addition of many new faces to the team and the return of older ones, this year looks to be a promising one for the Spartans, especially if they can integrate the new swimmers to work well with and complement the strengths of the older swimmers in both relays and individual events.
Grant Pawlak can be reached at grant.pawlak@spartans.ut.edu