12
WWW.GUILFORDIAN.COM
SPORTS
A cacophony of splashes and indiscernible chatter
echoes through the warm, muggy building, bouncing off
the walls and lingering in the r^ers of the vaulted ceding.
Nerves are shooting mrough the roof as swimmers from
Guilford, Randolph Macon, and Randolph College warm
up for the first meet of the season.
Finally, the water lies still and glassy and the room is
quiet. A piercing whistle sounds and six swimmers drop
into the water. A buzzer kicks ott the first race, a four
stroke relay beginning with backstroke.
"I was shaldng in the water," said first-year Sophie
Riley, who is one of the eight swimmers who swam for the
first time at the college level.
Guilford got off to a shaky start. Their two relay groups
finished last and second to last. In the second event, a 1000
yd. freestyle race, they fared no better.
Still, as the meet progressed, Guilford picked up its
intensity and managed to finish second, losing to Randolph
Macon 69-25, and beating out Randolph College 49-46.
Senior and team captain Genevieve Holmes finished
second in the fourth event, an intense 50 yd. fi-eestyle
race. Holmes also placed fourth in the 100 yd fiieestyle
race, right behind last year's top swinuner, sophomore
Justine Merritt.
Karamfila Shalamanova, a first-year who
came to Guilford from Bulgaria, swam the 100
yard breast stroke race and finished second
Senior captain Amanda Oehlert finished a
few seconds behind her, in third place.
"As a team I think we did alright,"
Oehlert said. "It was respectable for. a
first meet. We have a lot of time for
improvement."
Fourth-year Coach Steve Kaczmarek
is anticipating the best swim season yet.
He hopes to move up two slots from
last year's final standings in the ODAC
conference, from sixth
to fourth.
"This is probably the most dedicated team that we've
had at Guilford college," Kaczmarek said. "Practice has
been very, very good. Everyone has been very attentive;
everyone has been working very hard. Everybody wants
to do real well as a team, even though it's an individual
sport."
Kaczmarek, who has beeh coaching for 35 years, is a
firm believer that individual accomplishment and achiev
ing better times is more important than the team placing
high in the division.
"Winning these meets isn't necessarily the most impor
tant thing," Kaczmarek said. "Say we have 'Suzie,' who
can possibly qualify for the NCAA in X event. But, Suzie
could win two other events for us and we have someone
else who could swim X event, or Suzie could go to the
NCAA in X event so we put her in X Event and by her
not swimming the other two events, we might lose the
conference. But having the individual go to NCAA is
more important than the team winning the championship.
We'd like to be able to win the meet and (have Su2ie) go
to NCAA but if we have to choose, it's the individual over
the team."
The team agrees with this philosophy.
""I cheer for everyone else but Tm more
focused on how I do," Holmes said. "I
think (during the meete) everyone is
more focused on their own times,
but at the end it's always nice to
know that you beat a team as a
team."
Though ite hard for a con
versation to run 'dry' in a sport
where the participants spend
most of their time underwater,
the nature of the sport can make
it difficult for the swim team to
bond. To encourage
his team to get
to know each
"I think (during the meets) everyone is
more focused on their own times, but at
the end it's always nice to know that you
a team as a team."
Genevieve Holmes
Women's Swimming Team Captain
other, Kaczmarek organized a team dinner at his house.
The team has become friends fast in and out of the
water.
"We^ joke around and have fun," Holmes said. "We
encourage each other to reach a certain time if we know
that it's reachable. It's hard to hear cheering (when you
are swimming) but it's really helpful to see people at the
side of the pool and at the end of the lane (cheering for.
you.)"
The team of 12 consists of four varsity letter win
ners, five first-years, and four sophomores, making it a
fairly young team with plenty of room for improvement.
Kaczmarek hopes to hone in on individual skill now that
the Quakers have had their first meet.
"From this point on, we're going to know how each
athlete needs to train," Kaczmarek said. "As of today, we
know who needs to work on pacing, who needs to work
on stroke work... a lot of people need to work on turns so
we'll be spending more time on turns, but it's all individu
ally based."
The technical aspects of swimming are hardly visible
to the casual spectator, but can make all the difference in
shaving seconds off swimmers'times.
"There's a lot of technique involved in your stroke,"
said first-year Julia Hohn. "For example, keeping your
elbows high up when you're doing freestyle, and keeping
them closer to your body to down the distance that you
have to move your arms."
Assistant coach Emily Lapinski, who swam for
Northern Michigan University, is available during prac
tices for indmdual training.
Oehlert and Holmes hold open captains' practices on
Sundays from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., which are high inten
sity workouts, but not limited to swimmers on the team.
The ODAC season predictions placed Guilford to fin
ish sixth in the conference, as they have the past three
years, but Kaczmarek believes this year's team has the
potential to surpass this expectation.
"I would like to think lliat we could finish fourth. So
that's kind of a team goal, but not as important as indi
vidual goals," Kaczmarek said.