Swimmers, take your mark:
The Washington University swim team is already off to a spectacular start as the winter season gets under way. The Bears opened their season against Division I cross-town rival Saint Louis University with a dramatic 153-140 win. Despite falling to Truman State following a three-week layoff, the women’s team bounced back strong by crushing DePauw University by 43 points. Both the men’s and the women’s squads followed this performance by finishing second and first respectively at the University of Chicago Invitational. The Bears are scheduled to host the Washington University Thanksgiving Invitational next Saturday.
This year, like all others, the Bears are in the running for the University Athletic Association Championship. The teams look forward to capturing the title as they face off against powerful division foes such as Carnegie Mellon and Emory.
Diving in:
The Bears are led by head coach Brad Shively and assistant coaches Brian Hindman and Meg Dierkes. In just his fifth year as head coach of the Bears, Coach Shively has turned the swim team into a conference favorite year after year. Under his leadership, the Bears find themselves placing consistently within the top fifteen in the NCAA Championships.
“Brad is simply awesome, because he never stops encouraging you to succeed,” says freshman Geoff Hart Cooper.
Captains for the women’s squad are seniors Brianna Krull, Sarah Goldberg, and Su Wang. For the men’s squad, seniors Mike Hernandez and Stephen Dilorenzo lead the team and its three returning seniors. Most recently, junior Mike Slavik was awarded NCAA Division III Swimmer of the Week accolades for his efforts in defeating Saint Louis University.
In addition, the Bears boast fourteen All-UAA swimmers, seven from each squad. Equally impressive, seventeen swimmers in all qualified to become a part of the UAA-All Academic Team.
Despite these amazing talents, coach Shively assures that everyone’s contributions are equally important,
“Honestly, we need everybody to step up in order to be successful. We have no single superstar to lead the way. There are too many different types of races and hopefully, we’ll have somebody step up in every position.”
Freestyle:
Under the leadership of coach Shively and with the guidance of both assistant coaches, a Bear usually averages between six to eight practices every week. Team members often find themselves waking up at 6:00 in the morning to prepare for an upcoming meet. Despite their rigorous schedules, both teams have developed their own unique personalities and rituals.
“We’re just quirky,” said Junior Alex Antilla when asked about the personality of the team.
For instance, before every meet the team shouts “Sausage!” in unison. When asked about the reasoning behind the abnormal chant choice, Antilla responded, “I don’t even know why we do that and we’ve been doing that since my freshman year.”
Nicknames also tend to be quite unusual. Freshman Andrew McGregor for example is also known as “Hurricane.” After further investigation, it was discovered that McGregor acquired this nickname not for his hurricane-like abilities in the pool, but because he happens to be a big Miami Hurricane football fan from Florida and because there was another “hurricane” in the past also named Andrew.
The Bears are firm believers in reciting random chants before meets to establish their presence. For example, before every dual meet the men’s team collectively asks, “What do we eat?” which is then answered by the women’s team in unison, “We eat SpaghettiOs.”
“I think we just do it because we liked the commercial,” said Antilla, trying to explain the meaning of the peculiar tradition.
Although we may never understand the quirky customs and rituals of the University swim teams, what is undoubtable is their power and potential in the upcoming season.