By: Jimmy Brooks, News Staff
With every year that passes, head coach Roy Coates does everything he can to prepare his team for the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) championships. Some years, things turn out for the best, and some years, they don’t.
This season, the Huskies placed eighth out of nine — the exact same finish they posted in the previous season. On paper, one could simply chalk up the 2010-11 season as a lost opportunity, or at the very least, as a season that didn’t turn out for the best.
Yet in this instance, there’s reason not to trust paper. Ask Coates, and he will tell you the type of progress the team has made, and that the future is looking up.
“We have some stuff going for us [next year],” Coates said. “We have a strong freshmen class and a few seniors next year. Plus the incoming freshmen class are in position to do well and score some points.”
Coates believes the squad he carried into this year’s CAA finals will only get better next year, starting with the talented underclassmen swimmers and divers currently on the roster, who, not just in a literal sense, are the future of the program.
On day one, freshman diver Candace Young backed up this notion by posting the strongest score of any Northeastern diver, placing eight with a score of 235.65.
Rounding out day one’s competition, junior Rachael Peterson placed a score of 258.50, good enough for the best finish in the consolation round. Senior Jennyfer Roberts also placed a score of 177.70, finishing 16th overall.
Finishes in middle place ranges came about quite frequently for the Huskies throughout the four days. Although the squad would have liked to turn in a few more top-five finishes, the results weren’t particularly shocking to the team.
“Well like I said, on paper, it’s what we expected,” Coates said. “We were subscribing to what was expected, but still, we would have liked to move up.”
Day two was somewhat subdued, with seniors Sarah Martin, Rachel Mondello, Erica Smotrycz and sophomore Nicole Colucci placed eighth in the 200 freestyle relay, posting a time of 1:34.98. The time was good enough for a season best in the event. In addition, the 400 relay team comprised of Smotrycz, junior Jill Kearns, and freshman Dana Schleif and Julia Alvarez posted a school record time of 3:47.89, good enough for seventh place.
That which appears mediocre actually carries a silver lining for the Huskies, especially headed into next season. The school 400 relay record was one of nine school records set on the year, evidence of progress, even if progress didn’t advance the Huskies in the CAA meet.
“I think we had a really great season,” Senior Jill Kearns said. “It was one of the best seasons [I’ve had] here, one of the more most fun seasons. But still I would have liked to do better.”
Colucci, Alvarez, Martin and Smotrycz kicked day three off with the 200 meter relay. Their time of 1:44.65 was good enough for eighth place.
Junior Jill Kearns was one of the bright spots of the third day, placing third in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:21.41. Freshman Julia Sepulveda trailed, posting a time of 4:23.25, earning her 11th place.
“It’s hard for us because we get there and we seem smaller than the other teams,” Kearns said. “Personally, I think we have to just keep morale up [next year]. Once we got there the first day we kind of felt washed out. Everyone realizes it and everyone feels the same way about [what we need to do for next season].”
Coates had similar things to say as well, stating that he’d most like to improve the team’s mindset in the year-end event.
“We need to work on pure confidence,” Coates said. “We’ve got to get over a mental hump that it’s not just one to two people that will score for us, it’s six to 10 people. We have to get over that block, because as a team we’re out of our element.”
Day three was partially highlighted by a fifth-place performance by Alvarez in the 100 breaststroke, who turned in a time of 1:03.87. Candace Young returned to the diving platform, earning a sixth-place result with a score of 265.90. The day was wrapped up with of sophomore Kelley Becherer, and freshman Adriana Sepulveda, Colleen McCormack and Julia Sepulveda, who posted a time of 7:35.02, earning the swimmers an eighth-place finish.
The finish resulted in yet another school record, evidence of the Huskies unwavering energy throughout the four days. Yet Coates still firmly believes that a greater sense of confidence at the meet would have gone a long way in improving the team’s standing, and perhaps even breaking more records.
“There’s such a fine line between swimming confidently and swimming simply with aggression,” Coates said. “The effort’s there, the aggressiveness is there, but as a whole we don’t believe we can get in scoring position. We need to have that faith.”
On the final day of competition, Kearns delivered with another solid performance, this time placing fourth in the 200 butterfly, with a time of 2:01.02, beating her old school record by just over four-tenths of a second. In their final event of the 2011 season, Smotrycz, Becherer, Martin and Adriana Sepuveda touched the wall at 3:28.10, good enough for 8th place.
Despite the positive attitude Coates carries into next year, he said he realizes that there is plenty that needs to happen before the Huskies climb up the conference standings.
“We need to get better, we need to increase the competitiveness of our team,” Coates said. “We have some catching up to do in our conference – we realize that so we have our work cut out for us with the people on our team, and bringing in recruits.”
The Huskies will need to do just that if they plan to catch up with the likes of Towson, who finished first for the fourth consecutive year. Attempts to narrow the gap will start this offseason, where the team will hit the weight room to work with strength and conditioning coaches.
Over the summer, Coates expects that his swimmers will swim with their respective hometown teams to stay in shape. With the CAA’s over, the Huskies finish the 2010-2011 season with an 8-4 record and a 2-3 CAA conference record. However, the season is not over for Peterson, Young and Roberts. All three will be competing at the NCAA Zone Diving Championships, which will take place at Navy on March 11-12.
