NCAA Swimming Preview
March 14, 2007 10:43 AM | General
March 14, 2007
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| Sergio Lopez |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Fresh off its first Big East championship in school history, the West Virginia University men’s swimming and diving team will try to set a few more records this week when it competes in the NCAA championships March 15-17 in Minneapolis, Minn.
A school record eight Mountaineer swimmers qualified for this year’s event. Those eight will compete in 19 individual events and five relays. Of the eight swimmers competing three are juniors, two are sophomores and three are freshmen. The absence of seniors is a testament to just how bright the future is for this West Virginia team.
“It is great that we won’t graduate any of the swimmers competing this week,” third-year Coach Sergio Lopez said. “We have many chances to have second swims and gain more experience so next year we can come here with more swimmers and compete at an even higher level.”
With so many underclassmen competing on such a grand stage, coaches often worry about nerves and pre-meet jitters. Lopez, on the other hand, believes those emotions are synonomous with any athlete dedicated to their sport.
“In the NCAA championships you are competing against some of the very best swimmers in the world,” Lopez said. “I hope my kids or nervous. If they are not that would tell me that they don’t care. They know what we are doing. We have a chance to do something great and our guys have nothing to lose.”
Lopez won’t rely just on times or lofty point standings to determine his team’s success this week. The Barcelona, Spain, native simply wants his men to perform the way he knows they can.
“We need to make sure that we are ready for our relays because they score double and I really think that if we swim our relays the way we can we could finish in the top eight in those and surprise everyone,” Lopez said. “As long as the kids perform at the level they can, this week is a success.”
Another impressive fact heading into this week is that only 10 of the 46 teams competing will send more swimmers into the pool than West Virginia. That is a monumental accomplishment that illustrates just how far this team has come in three years under Lopez.
Lopez credits the tireless work ethic of the recruits he has brought into the program as the main reason for the Mountaineers’ ascension to the top of the Big East and beyond.
“The most important thing in building a program at this level is recruiting. When you talk about Auburn and Cal and a lot of the Big Ten schools, it is hard to compete against that swimming tradition,” Lopez said. “At the same time, all you need are quality people that have a strong desire to prove themselves. I love kids that want to develop their talent and be all that they can.”
This week eight West Virginia swimmers will try to do just that and in the process, establish a little tradition of their own.
ESPN360 will carry the Friday and Saturday championship sessions live. Fans can log onto ESPN360.com to access the meet.
West Virginia’s NCAA Qualifiers
Juniors:
100 Breast – 53.17 (6th)
100 Fly – 47.26 (15th)
100 Free – 43.40 (16th)
100 Breast – 53.83 (16th)
200 Breast – 1:58.70 (25th)
200 Fly – 1:44.9 (11th)
100 Fly – 47.73 (29th)
200 IM – 1:48.07 (37th)
Sophomores:
4 x 100 Free Relay
100 Fly – 47.72 (28th)
100 Free – 44.16 (49th)
50 Free – 20.07 (38th)
Freshman:
200 Breast – 1:57.75 (20th)
400 IM – 3:51.84 (25th)
200 IM – 1:49.02 (51st)
200 Free – 1:36.18 (19th)
500 Free – 4:22.97 (34th)
200 Back – 1:46.54 (36th)
100 Back – 48.34 (29th)
Relays:
200 Medley Relay – 1:27.05 (12th)
400 Medley Relay – 3:12.36 (13th)
200 Free Relay – 1:18.89 (10th)
400 Free Relay – 2:56.00 (12th)
800 Free Relay – 6:32.21 (18th)
