The Hillsdale women’s swim team began their season Saturday with their annual Blue vs. White intrasquad meet.
The team will be in action next at a special meet against Northern Michigan over fall break. This meet is unique in that prior to the standard competition on Saturday, the girls will face off on Friday with a meet comprised solely of relays.
Senior Lauren Burt said she has high hopes for the team this year. The Chargers have improved every season that she’s been here, and with the talent that Hillsdale has now, this year should be no different.
Even though the Chargers have constantly improved since Burt’s freshman year, so has the competition, she said.
The GLIAC is the most competitive conference in all of DII, so this season will be no walk in the park, several swimmers said.
According to Burt, individual and team improvements, as opposed to any specific placing within the division, are the girls’ main focus for this year.
Junior Alison Johnson said she is optimistic about the possibilities for the Chargers this year as well.
The depth of the team is our greatest strength, Johnson said. Although some girls are faster than others, they aren’t too far ahead. All of the girls train at similar levels and complete the same workouts together.
The team’s depth is evident in their relays. While some schools’ relays are substantially faster or slower, Hillsdale fields relays that are never too far apart from each other.
Freshmen Hannah Leitner and Jennifer Wheeler both said they are excited to be part of the team and have high expectations for the season.
Leitner is glad she finally has teammates. During high school, she was the sole member of her high school team and had to compete alone. Although she trained with a club team, she would much rather have had other girls from her high school to train and compete with.
Wheeler said she is eager to incorporate weight training into her regimen. Through lifting weights, Wheeler hopes that added strength will translate into faster times in the pool. Wheeler is also looking forward to an annual team-building exercise, the Navy SEAL Challenge, which is composed of pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, running, and swimming. The challenge will test the girls’ abilities outside of the water and will help them gain stamina and strengthen the muscles that aren’t worked during swimming. Workouts outside of the pool, or dry land workouts, are a staple of the team’s routine and will be incorporated more as the season progresses.
Despite losing seniors Linda Okonkowski, Katie Lamb, and Michaela Wolfe, Coach Kurt Kirner is optimistic for what this season has in store. The Chargers are joined by a class of eight freshmen, each of whom ranked Hillsdale as their top priority.
Aiming for a certain ranking in the GLIAC for the end of the season is risky, because other teams may have more scholarship money or may get lucky with young new talent, so Coach Kirner said he instead looks for time improvements on the individual and team levels.
Hillsdale has set more records and had more swimmers set national-qualifying cuts in the past couple years than ever before, so Kirner only sees things improving for the Chargers in the future. With eight eager newcomers, as well as the seasoned upperclassmen, Charger nation is excited to see how the season will play out.