The Eastern Michigan University men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will take on the Xavier Musketeers at 5 p.m. Friday in Cincinnati.
“Swimming Xavier is a good training meet and gives us a chance to get the mental refresh by swimming a different schedule,” senior backstroker Troy Esenta said.
The teams recently hosted the EMU invitational at Jones Natatorium and they have a month with no meets.
“We have a break of absence that extends through winter break in which we will train our little hinnies off,” senior backstroker Michele Gingher said.
The training session will take place for two weeks in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and then in the week following, the teams will be off to Ohio to meet Xavier.
“Everyone will probably be exhausted and beat up, but our team will be that much faster after we recover,” junior freestyler Briana Emig said.
The Eagles took first place against Bowling Green, 171-123, and during the EMU Invitational they landed in second place behind Oakland with an overall score of 931. Both of the team’s loses have not been drastic. They lost to Ohio by two points, and they fell to Oakland by 20.
The leaders for the women’s team have been fairly consistent throughout the season. Emig, Sara Ghaffari, Jackie Swartz, Amanda Kiefer, Jessie Godlewski and Monica Dorszewski have all been strong swimmers in every meet. On the diving boards, Kelly Hendricks and Danielle Hulvey also receive high marks.
“The team goal going into a swim meet is always to win,” Emig said. “If it doesn’t happen, we still accomplish a lot. We learn from it. We improve on things, and we come back stronger.”
For the men’s team, the season might not have started out with a bang but it has certainly made up for it during the two-day EMU Invitational by taking in first place with a score of 923.5. The Eagle’s prior two meets against Northwestern and Oakland both ended in loses.
The men’s team has solid performers in Franco Petrone, Brian Moore, Matt Zavislak, Troy Esentan, Jacob Hanson and Mike Swain. Where diving is concerned, junior Jeff Craig scores the bulk of the points.
“In dual meets, first place counts for much more than any other place and so the swimmers who have the ability to win dual meet races are the athletes we count on in any particular competition,” Coach Peter Linn said.
The Xavier women’s team lost its first three meets. The team did win against Wheeling Jesuit, 117-82. During a two-day event in Indianapolis, Indiana, the House of Champions, in which the women swam to second place. Their last meet was the Akron Invitational, which lasted three days, and the Xavier women placed eighth.
The Xavier men, however, are a different story. The men have won against Cincinnati and also against the Wheeling Jesuit. During the House of Champions event, the men took first place and during the Akron Invitational they took third.
I think when the Xavier meet rolls around in January, with all the training that both Eastern swim teams will be participating in, they both have a good chance winning the meet. The Eastern women have strong swimmers and have performed well in all of their past meets. The men will have to work hard to overcome Xavier, but I think the training session over break will help them swim to the top over Xavier.
“In general, it is similar to all dual meets in that they serve as a fun way to gauge our training progress,” Linn said. “But unlike dual competitions in team sports, they do not impact conference standings or championship results.”
I have no doubt that our men’s and women’s teams will be able to bring back a victory in this intense meet as they take on Xavier right after training hard for two weeks.
Junior free swimmer Michael Kinross said, “It will be a good test for us coming right off the training trip and we will do our best to put together well swum races and score some great times to start off the second half of our season.”
