On Saturday, Oct. 12, the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams won their matchup against North Central. This comes off a season in which both the men’s and women’s teams won the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) titles.
While this is the earliest the teams have ever started the season, it has shown some positives, and the teams are going in the right direction. Though the swimming and diving season is long, starting with a win can help boost team morale and help the athletes improve.
“I think we’re just very early in the season, so we have a long way to go into what we want, which is excellence in February,” Coach Dan Lloyd said. “So it’s just one step forward, and we don’t want to look too deep into it. It’s more of a chance to get a race and see where we’re at.”
The teams combined to win an outstanding 20 out of the 22 events during the meet. Athletes like First-Year Matthew Meyer saw that their practice during the off-season had been paying off.
“We are focused this year,” Meyer said. “We’ve been putting in the practice, and it was good to see how we all raced at that meet, and I think we’re in a pretty good spot for this season right now.”
While the teams have multiple dual meets ahead of the season, they also have many invitationals that they say feel much different than head-to-head meets.
“Invitationals are good in setting up a feeling for what conference championships are going to be like, just because you’re going to be swimming three events over three days,” Lloyd said. “Invitationals are typically two days, so it’s a more tune-up. This is just more of an ability to do check-ins of racing throughout the season of where we’re at.”
Sophomore Caitlin Stoddard is in her second year on the team and has experienced both dual meets and bigger invitationals in her athletic career. She said that a big difference between dual meets and an invitational is the pressure involved.
“I think there are differences, especially because invitationals are supposed to be bigger, higher stakes,” Stoddard said. “Personally, I try to keep them at the same level.”
Along with the pressure, the atmosphere is also different at invitationals due to the competitiveness and the larger number of people supporting their team.
“With more teams, more supporters come out,” Meyer said. “More people come rooting for their team to win, and our supporters also come out. I know that there’s a lot of friends and family in the stands who are cheering for us.”
The pressure may be lower for dual meets, but the swimmers still compete at a high level. The races are valuable opportunities to assess their performance and identify areas for improvement.
“For a dual meet, I want to say it’s a little more laid back, but I know I saw fewer stakes,” Meyer said. “The stakes aren’t as high as an invite, but still a meet is an opportunity to race. So I still want to try my best and see where I am.”
Although the season has just started, many lessons could come out of just the first meet. Lloyd hopes that the members of the team are able to pick up on the lessons and move on to improve.
“Just continuing for us to stay focused on the end goal, and I think that’s the biggest thing is not to get too focused on what the result is, but how that piece plays into the bigger picture of where we’re trying to go and the goal that we’re trying to accomplish in February,” Lloyd said.
Both men’s and women’s teams will next face off in another dual meet against Monmouth College on Oct. 25, before traveling to Bloomington for the Illinois Wesleyan Halloween Invite the next day.