Keene State Men’s and Women’s Swim & Dive teams will compete in the Little East Conference (LEC) Championship from Thursday, Feb. 12 – Sunday, Feb 15. The women’s team is coming off of their 20th title of all time, while the men’s side looks to add their first conference championship.
The women’s team has only lost in three of its 11 scoring meets and the men’s team is coming off a win against Plymouth State University. Although it is championship week, Head Coach Chris Woolridge says he is not changing much of the physical and mental preparation heading into the big weekend.
“They started back in September, they’ve been working hard all the way through. It’s just about sharpening up and thinking about how they want to execute their races. We’re not trying to pile a lot of pressure on them,” said Woolridge.
Woolridge spoke further on the current atmosphere and mental side of preparation.
“Everybody gets nervous when they compete. You should. But it’s like a healthy level of anxiety, like just enough to get you tuned up and get some adrenaline going. But they know the deal, they know they’re well prepared.”
Senior Captain Olivia Boulris added that the team’s tiredness has not taken away from this season’s success, and it should not have any effect on the big stage.
“We’ve worked on leaning on each other, and regardless of the training we had the week before we all just got together and pushed through to try and do our best. This season everyone was just really motivated to leave it all in the pool no matter how tired we were,” said Boulris.
Woolridge laid out the team’s focus heading into championship weekend, highlighting relay teams as a priority for preparation.
“We’re going to have a good showing in the women’s distance events. We’ve been prepping our relays now for a week. I think the 800-yard (freestyle) relays are going to go well for them,” said Woolridge.
The women’s team won 16 straight LEC titles before snapping that streak in the 23-24 season. The Owls returned last season and reclaimed the conference, and Boulris says the team utilizes that past for their future success.
“We use the past success to really motivate us and to live up to that legacy in the best way we can. Especially on the women’s side it is a very motivating thing to have that success behind us,” said Boulris.
Director of Athletics Marty Testo commented on the team’s legacy and the expectation they have set to show up and win.
“Coach Woolridge always has them prepared for Little East [Conference] tournament play. I’m going to assume, but I think it’s a pretty good assumption, that the expectation is to win and to be successful. It always is. We’ve been very fortunate to have a successful swim and dive team,” said Testo.
When the team arrives at the LEC championship, Woolridge is prepared for what teams to look out for and who in the conference can hurt their chances of victory.
“On the women’s side, in the dual meets, we beat every team in the LEC. I think Eastern’s [Connecticut’s] is going to be tough again, and I actually think Husson out of Maine is going to put a pretty good program together,” said Woolridge.
The championship format is different from the dual meets that the Owls have competed in all year, and Woolridge explained the difference saying, “The strategy is a little different. Dual meet, you just have to win, that’s how you win those meets. For championship meets, it’s like average points per swim that you generate, or per dive event,” said Woolridge.
Boulris emphasized the need to stick together through the big weekend, “We are each other’s biggest supporters and biggest cheerleaders because we’ve been with each other every day, multiple times a day, since September. We have seen all the work put in, so just staying strong and finishing strong and pushing ourselves is really what I’m hoping for.”
Both teams will compete in the last meet of the season in hopes of bringing another women’s championship home and to give the men’s side their first conference title.
Jacob Enscoe can be contacted at
