Lyndsay Krisel
Equinox Staff
Six weeks at home, six weeks on vacation, six weeks of relaxing with family and friends.
While most students chose to spend the much needed time off from school and work responsibilities, many college athletes spent their time training hard and working on refining their skills in an attempt to finish out their winter season as champions.
Chris Palermo / File Photo
KSC freshman Matt Ahlberg competes in a home meet vs. Tufts University on Nov. 18, 2012. The meet was held at the pool located in the Spaulding Gymnasium.
This was the case for the Keene State College swimming and diving teams.
Their coaches said they feel they have returned to the pool stronger and faster than ever, with great confidence in defeating their opponents.
According to assistant coach Dan Morse, “Confidence comes with preparation,” and this year much of the team’s preparation took place in Florida, where the athletes were able to slip away from the bitter cold weather, relax a bit and take in the smell of chlorine in a different setting.
Morse explained that the facilities that are accessible to the swimmers are much larger and helped many of them reach their personal goals.
The warm weather was also a positive in the sense that it kept the athletes in good spirits while training, according to Morse.
“We work really hard over the winter break because the athletes don’t have classes or school work to worry about,” Morse said. “They have a lot of free time so we usually try to take all that up during practice.”
The team is very strong, fit and ready for Nationals this year as at least six swimmers have already qualified or made their cuts, according to Morse.
These swimmers include Drew Ledwith, Julie Trodden and Josh Tuller, who qualified for the regional competition in diving.
“I’ve never seen an entire team look so fit,” Morse said, “and I think that overall, it will help their confidence for competition.” With six weeks left to train for Nationals that will take place in Texas, Morse said he hopes to see a good combined effort from the team to help keep each other going, and continue their upsets against their opponents.
Freshman Corrina Nickerson and sophomore Diana Pimer also had much to add to the recap of their season, including the difficulties of training. Nickerson explained that training, especially in Florida, was quite difficult, but also rewarding.
“We did a lot of different training, which was really hard, but we got through it because all the teammates were really positive the whole way, which helped coming in as a freshman, not knowing what to expect,” she said.
Swimmer and National B-cut qualifier Diana Pimer also explained that the positive outlook this year in Florida was much better than it was a year ago.
She commented, “The atmosphere and team bonding helped a lot for training, and kept very positive attitudes for competitions as well, and when we got back, practices were separate, which really allowed each individual team to get to know each other better.”
Head Coach John Fabian seemed to be pleased as well, explaining to Pimer that they look good as a team. “[Fabian] told us that we look really great swimming wise and team-wise,” Pimer said, “and all the work we’ve put in, he’s very confident for championships, which makes all of the girls very positive as well because that overall reinforcement relaxes us.”
The boys on the other hand, while agreeing with the girls on how training in Florida went, had an outlook expressing a much simpler take, since they are just ready to swim and looking forward to the New England Championships. Senior Mark Marois said that the team has been working very hard, pointing out a key swimmer who recently returned to the pool after a mono outbreak, and performed fairly well.
“The quick recovery was exactly what we needed for relays,” Marois said. He also stated that with the teams practicing separately this season, it was a nice change-up for the guys to train without the girls.
“The team is a lot bigger this year, so it was more split between the men and women, so it was good for the guys to have time together without the girls,” Marois explained.
Sophomore swimmer, Randall Dunton also added that Coach Fabian seemed much more relaxed and confident with the way the team had been performing this year, both at home and their time in Florida.
He said, “The team building and chemistry seemed better, and Jack was definitely way more relaxed, which helped us perform better.”
As the winter continues, the team hopes to see some big accomplishments and goals met for these hard-working swimmers in the New England Championships in early March along with the National Championships in late March.
Lyndsay Krisel can be contacted at lkrisel@ksc.keene.edu