By Chris Berry
After a season which saw the University of Louisville men’s swimming and diving team receive a school-record 13 ranking, they look to come back this season and pick up where they left off.
Last season, the swimming and diving team beat the University of Kentucky for first time in the program’s history, and came within .32 seconds of winning the Big East Championship. Meanwhile, a record five women swimmers advanced to the NCAA Champinoships. From last year’s team, six male All-American swimmers and ten female All-American swimmers are returning this year, and the Cardinals expect to win the Big East title this year.
“As a team, we have a team mission, a goal, to win the Big East of course, but also win all our meets leading up to it,” said women’s team captain Whitney Campbell.
After sending seven men to the NCAA Championships last season, men’s captain Luke Wakefield has a goal to send between 12-15 swimmers this season. Like every other team on campus, every swimmer has circled the Jan. 23 meet against Kentucky on their calendars.
“Last year was the first time the guys beat them in the history of the program, and now we’re at home,” Wakefield said. “It’s going to be big. It’s going to be huge.”
Assistant Coach Ryan Wochomurka wants to continue to build on what has been a five to six year spiral towards the top.
“We want to keep moving forward,” Wochomurka said. “We came eight points shy and .32 [seconds] short last year, and that’s a little extra motivation. We want to go to the NCAA Championships. We took seven last year, we want to go back with more. We want to go back with ten plus. If we succeed at that, hopefully a conference championship will come as a consequence of that.”
Coach Wochomurka knows that the veterans are geared towards this goal because of their involvement last year. An added bonus is the stellar freshmen class awaiting competition this year.
“I’m really excited about our freshmen class,” Wochomurka said. “We’re challenging them to take it to a whole other level, and we’ve got some pretty talented kids there.”
Coach Wochomurka is looking forward to seeing how freshmen Michael Pryor and Kara Savegnago compete this season, after watching them in the intersquad meet.
Wochomurka is also looking forward to the return of 2008 Big East Conference Swimmer of the Year, Leslie VanWinkle, who missed last season due to an arm injury. She returns to swim for the Cardinals in her fifth year of eligibility.
The women’s swimming and diving season begins Oct. 15, when the University of Tennessee comes to Ralph Wright Natatorium to take on the Cardinals. The men’s season begins Oct. 23, also against the University of Tennessee at Ralph Wright Natatorium.
