BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - After months of dryland conditioning, weights and early morning practices, the WKU swimming and diving team is about to kick start the 2014-15 season when Delta State comes to Bowling Green on Saturday, Oct. 11 at 2 p.m. CT.
Admission is free for fans while the meet takes place at Bill Powell Natatorium inside the Raymond B. Preston Health and Activities Center.
"I think everybody is anxious just to get up and race," said WKU head coach Bruce Marchionda, who enters his 10th year at the helm. "We have been training here for a while and kind of racing each other from time to time in practice, so this gives us an opportunity to get up and race against other people, which I think everybody is excited about. We have a large group of freshmen and transfer students that we have not seen, and they have not been a part of the WKU traditions, so it is an exciting time for them to show what they can do and learn a lot about them as well."
The 2013-14 season was a successful one for the Hilltoppers, claiming the first Conference USA title on The Hill while Fabian Schwingenschlogl earned All-America honors at the NCAA Championships after placing eighth in the 100 breast. Marchionda looks for that group to continue to be a strength on the men's side.
Marchionda also expects the men's middle distance freestylers to have a big year after consisting of a strong group.
"That group can run the gamut anywhere from the 100 up to the 1000 and that covers a lot of events," Marchionda said. "That is a good group of freestylers like Aymeric Le Corno and Cody Reul, who won the conference championship in the 500 free last year, along with Russ Bryant and Collin Craig, a new kid on the team from California. It is kind of a group that we look for to carry us throughout the year."
The Lady Toppers will look for their first championship since joining Conference USA last season, as the women took fourth in last year's league meet. Returning many of their top scorers from one year ago, the Lady Toppers will provide an attack from every event.
"I think we are pretty balanced across the board where in past years we may have a weak spot here or there," Marchionda said of the women's squad. "We may not have a tremendous amount of depth in some events, but we are pretty balanced from top to bottom. We have a couple of new sprinters coming in to help us in free events like Logan Graumann on up to the fly events where we needed some help last year, and now we have Hannah Musser filling some voids there for us and Haley Black who is coming off a great summer for her up in Canada.
"So those things are very exciting, and we are kind of looking for that balance this weekend on the women's side. Hopefully the big thing for them is to start putting things together, coming together as a team, working together as a team because they can't do it by themselves that's for sure. Even though swimming is very individualized, it is very much a team sport."
The meet will be the second of the season for Delta State, who opened just a month ago with tough losses against Alabama. The Statesmen and Lady Statesmen are familiar opponents for WKU, as it has opened with Delta State for the past two seasons.
"Delta State runs a nice program down there," Marchionda said. "They have a beautiful 50-meter facility, which we enjoy going to down there on the off years that they don't come here. It's just been a great opponent for us. Some good competition for us but not overwhelming so that we can see what we need to work on, see where we are making mistakes, just see where we are at this time of year. Dan'l Murray does a great job down there with his team, so they are going to come up here and fight, and give us all we can handle."
For all the latest news and information on WKU swimming and diving, visit WKUSports.com or follow the program on Twitter via @WKUSwimDive and @WKUDiving and by liking the team on Facebook through WKU Swimming and Diving.
