Ryan Glavey
Sports Editor
To the misfortune of the Keene State College, the women’s swimming and diving team look to be competing with possibly no divers this season.
“We had some people that we thought were going to work out,” Swimming and Diving Coach, Jack Fabian said. “But some recruits feel through. It’s tough, because I’m essentially recruiting for four sports, women’s swimming, men’s swimming, women’s diving, and men’s diving.”
Fabian said freshman Kayla Purinton will be diving for the Owls during the LEC championships, but is unsure if she will continue for the rest of the winter season.
This puts KSC at an immediate disadvantage at every meet they compete in because they will not be able to field anyone for the diving portion.
Instead, they will be forced to forfeit those points to their opponents by default.
Fabian said having no divers equates to forfeiting two events at every meet.
Fabian said this will cost KSC 28-32 points each meet.
“Not having any divers is a severe blow in regional meets, and it will even make competing in the LEC difficult,” Fabian said.
He said it will make competing at the New England Championship almost impossible, when KSC has to go up against tough teams like Bentley College.
Fabian said the lack of divers this year could be related to his priorities during the off-season.
“At the end of last year I was most concerned about women’s swimming because our numbers were down and we were graduating some top swimmers,” Fabian said. “And that worked out.”
Fabian said he focused a large amount of his recruiting on the women’s swim team, which resulted in a big turnout for the team.
Fabian said he is focusing more on recruiting divers this year, and hopes to get a top diving recruit to come to KSC next year.
Fabian said if she does decide to come to KSC, she could possibly be the school’s best diving recruit to date.
Ryan Glavey can be contacted at rglavey@keene-equinox.com