With the Wisconsin men’s and women’s swimming and diving season set to get underway this Friday against UW-Milwaukee, the coaching staff and athletes already have their eyes set on the NCAA Championships.
Head coach Eric Hansen hopes to find that the first meet of the season kicks-off with a blast, especially for the freshman.
“Our main objective against Milwaukee is to try to put our freshman into positions to see where everyone is at,” Hansen said.
Last year, the Badgers ended on a high note at the 2010 NCAA Championships. Then a freshman, Daniel Lester finished in 7th place in the 200-yard butterfly, earning him the All-American award.
“We’ve put in a great summer by the whole squad. We’ll do extremely well this year. I’m excited,” Lester said.
Ending the regular season with a victory, Lester knows his win will help him begin the 2010-2011 season.
“Yeah, it gives me confidence…it’s confidence-building going into these little meets knowing what to expect,” Lester said.
Before reaching the NCAA Championships, UW will have to get familiar with their opponents’ pool. With only two home meets this season, against Milwaukee and Northwestern, the team will have to make themselves at home while traveling on the road.
Senior Maggie Meyer currently holds five school records, and took 1st at the 2010 Big Ten Championships in the 100-yard backstroke last season. That strong showing has carried a lot of momentum into the new season
“Last spring and then this summer, all the successes our team has had all together has really built a lot of momentum looking into the season, as well as having some really strong freshmen and sophomores, some underclassmen, that are going to really contribute and add to the program this year, in addition to the strong upperclassmen we have,” Meyer said.
The season carries on with Iowa, Minnesota, Arizona/UNLV and Northwestern, and continues with one of the focus meets of the season, the Texas Invitational.
Following the Texas Invitational, the team will travel to Green Bay and Hawaii before competing in the Big Ten Quad Duals and the Big Ten Championships. Last year the Big Ten Championships were a success for men’s and women’s swimming.
“We have Texas Invite, which is the first week of December, and then we have Big Tens in the middle of February, and NCAA’s in March. And my main focus meet is March. It seems like a long ways away but when we get into training … and now that we’re on our schedule, we’re going to blink our eyes and it’s going be February and we’re going to be (start) tapering for NCAA and really seeing what we can really do on the national level. That’s the meet I’m most looking forward to,” Meyer said.
The NCAA Championships will be held March 17 to 19.
Diving coach Tom Michael has high hopes for his divers as well entering the new season.
“Mikey Ross I hope is going to break the 3-meter record … I’d like to see divers qualify for the NCAA Championships. That’s the big goal, that’s why we’re here. Anything else that happens along the way is gravy, basically. But our goal is to get to the NCAA Championships and score,” Michael said.
Before the NCAA Championships, the team will have the chance to get familiar with their competition with both conference and non-conference teams. The team is looking forward to the competition and has their goals set high.
“I think we want to rank as high, if not higher, as we’ve ever ranked at NCAA’s. Bringing the biggest squad to NCAA’s we’ve ever had,” Meyer said. “We want to place high at the Big Ten Championships and we want to swim fast at Texas. Our three big meets, I think we really want to perform well at. With how we’re training and how we’ve been able to get right into it.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that we’re going to have a great season.”