Though swimming and diving is considered a winter sport by the scheduling department, the Blugold swimmers are already getting ready for the the season in early October.
Coach Rob Welcher’s teams are preparing for what should be a challenging season. Along with the challenge of competing for the WIAC title, the teams will go up against some tough non-conference competition.
For the men’s team, the challenge this year is to catch UW-Stevens Point for the conference title. The Pointers won the WIAC meet last year, with UW-La Crosse finishing second and the Blugolds taking third.
Last year, Stevens Point was led by a strong senior class, and Welcher said that he isn’t sure what kind of athletes Stevens Point brought in to replace those who departed.
“We expect them to be weaker,” he said. “They lost some major seniors, and we are questionable as to how they were able to replace them.”
La Crosse is expected to be strong once again, but Welcher says that the Eagles face similar problems as Stevens Point in terms of replacing a strong senior class.
Junior Chris Smith agreed that the team doesn’t know how good Stevens Point will be this year.
“We don’t know where they’ll be,” he said. “They lost a big amount of talent, and it depends on their incoming freshmen.”
Smith, who competes in the individual medley, the breaststroke and the backstroke, thinks the team has the talent to live up to or exceed last season’s mark.
“We have the potential to do better than last year,” he said. “I’m not sure if we will.”
The Blugold men were able to add to some spots where they were lacking last year, including divers, where they have gone from one athlete to four.
“We filled a few holes in backstroke and in the sprints,” Welcher said. “We should be strong in the breast stroke and the individual medley.”
The women swimmers, after finishing second to Stevens Point in the WIAC meet last year, have similar main competitors as the men this year, but have a different view of the upcoming season. The team simply wants to keep pace with their finish from last year.
“The challenge for the women is to hang on to it,” Welcher said. “We lost a large senior class.”
Among the eight seniors the Blugold women lost to graduation were an All-American Honorable Mention and a national qualifier. The team also lost two senior divers, leaving it short in this department.
Even with the loss of athletes to graduation, the women will still have some events where they will have some depth, including the butterfly and the individual medley. However, Welcher said the team still has some holes.
“We have some strong people coming up in backstroke,” he said. “We’re short on breast strokers and short on divers.”
Despite the athletes that were lost, junior Kristjana Marston, who won the 200 individual medley in last year’s WIAC meet, is confident about how the team will do this year.
“I think we’ll be really strong,” she said. “We have good team camaraderie. We’re still good and we have a lot of depth.”
Both teams have good conference performers from last season returning. Leading the men’s team will be junior Matt Oglesby, who finished third nationaly in the 100 butterfly and set the school record in the 200 butterfly. The team’s 200 medley relay team that qualified for nationals also returns intact.
Some of the athletes returning for the women include Marston, who was a national qualifier in the 200 breaststroke to go along with her conference championship in the 200 IM.
On Saturday, the Blugold men and women will compete in an intrasquad meet. This meet is viewed by many on the team as just a fun opportunity to get out and compete.
“It’s a chance to get in and race for the first time this year,” Marston said. “You’ve got the whole team supporting you, and you’re racing against a teammate.”
