Eastern Michigan Athletics
Women's Swimming & Diving Opens Season Tonight vs. BGSU
10/30/2009 11:52:43 AM | Swimming & Diving
Eagles will do battle with Bowling Green Friday and Toledo and UW-Milwaukee Saturday to begin the 2009-10 capaign.
Live Scoring vs. BGSU, Toledo and UW-Milwaukee
YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.) -- The Eastern Michigan women's swimming and diving team will look a little different this season as they welcome in 11 newcomers to its squad. As a whole, the team is looking towards improving upon its fourth place finish at the Mid-American Conference Championships in 2009.
“We want to move up,” Head Coach Peter Linn said. “We swam up to our potential given what was going on, but we never felt like we swam at 100 percent.” The team was forced to deal with several injuries as well as the loss of Catherine Lee Ha, but still managed to go 7-4 overall and 5-2 in the MAC in dual meets. Three athletes were named to the All-MAC team and four to the Academic All-MAC squad, led by Alissa Ricard, who was the lone Eagle swimmer to represent Eastern Michigan at the NCAA Championships at Texas A&M University. She finished 31st overall in the 200 freestyle.
“We did graduate a lot and we had a strong class, leadership wise,” Linn said. Ricard, along with Hannah Burandt and Ashley Durand served as those leaders, guiding the Eagles to back-to-back MAC Championships in their tenure and a 3.5 GPA as a team, which was third-best in the country in 2009. Now that they are gone, the Eagles will look to a pair of new leaders for the 2009-10 season. Kristin Roach and Jess Wohl will assume new leadership roles this year as they take the reigns as team captains.
Newcomers
Linn is hopeful that all of the newcomers, especially Briana Emig, Wesley Blassneck, Lauren Kalinosky, and Helena Tolic can all contribute immediately.
Sprints
Having graduated their top sprinter from last year in Ricard, the Eagles will look to upperclassmen, junior Sarah Kowalski and senior Steph Cholyk, to fill in. Cholyk was one of four Eagle women to make the Academic All-MAC squad last year with a 3.64 GPA in biology. Tolic will also be a key addition to the sprint swimmers.
Distance
Emig, Blassneck, Samantha Partridge and Katie Simmons will all contribute in the distance races. Partridge was a second team All-MAC selection in 2009 and set new EMU records in the 1,650 free (16:45.87) and 400 IM (4:20.06).
Butterfly
Elisa Torres is the top returning swimmer in this event after turning in a fourth place performance in the 200 fly and an eighth place finish in the 100 fly at the MAC Championships last year. Her time in the 200 fly (2:01.05) was a new EMU record. Wohl, Samantha Nameth, Leeza Moser and Lauren Zafir are four other good flyers for the Eagles as well.
Backstroke
Sarah Maraskine swam solid at the MAC Championships last year with three top-7 finishes. The sophomore will lead a slew of backstroke swimmers in the 2009-10 season. Michele Gingher, Amanda Kiefer, Tracy Morgan and Kalinosky will also be heavy contributors.
Breaststroke
Chelsea Allard appears poised to fill in for Durand after swimming to a varsity record in the 100 breaststroke at the MAC Championships last season, finishing seventh overall to go with another seventh place finish in the 200 breaststroke. Sheila Carson won't be far behind while freshman Vanessa Weidner looks to be right in the mix.
Relays
“It remains to be seen,” Linn said of his relay prospects since losing virtually everyone from last year's relay teams. Without saying exactly who he thinks might emerge in each relay event, he did shed some light on his expectations. “The potential is good to be better than last year.”
Diving
“Danielle Hulvey is our top recruit and basically as talented as I've ever seen,” Head Coach Loren “Buck” Smith said. “We went from one diver to six and that's a big jump as far as how many points we can score.”
Junior Leslie Vizurraga is a perennial MAC finalist, finishing 10th in the three-meter and eighth in the one meter dive last season. With several more divers on the roster and a lot of incoming talent joining the squad, Smith showed a lot of excitement heading into the year.
“I have great kids,” Smith said. “It's been a lot of fun so far and I think we're going to do well.”
The Eagles will begin the 2009-10 season with a full weekend slate of competition. Bowling Green comes to the Jones Natatorium tonight for a 5 p.m. tilt and then Toledo and UW-Milwaukee will visit for a 1 p.m. start on Saturday.
YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.) -- The Eastern Michigan women's swimming and diving team will look a little different this season as they welcome in 11 newcomers to its squad. As a whole, the team is looking towards improving upon its fourth place finish at the Mid-American Conference Championships in 2009.
“We want to move up,” Head Coach Peter Linn said. “We swam up to our potential given what was going on, but we never felt like we swam at 100 percent.” The team was forced to deal with several injuries as well as the loss of Catherine Lee Ha, but still managed to go 7-4 overall and 5-2 in the MAC in dual meets. Three athletes were named to the All-MAC team and four to the Academic All-MAC squad, led by Alissa Ricard, who was the lone Eagle swimmer to represent Eastern Michigan at the NCAA Championships at Texas A&M University. She finished 31st overall in the 200 freestyle.
“We did graduate a lot and we had a strong class, leadership wise,” Linn said. Ricard, along with Hannah Burandt and Ashley Durand served as those leaders, guiding the Eagles to back-to-back MAC Championships in their tenure and a 3.5 GPA as a team, which was third-best in the country in 2009. Now that they are gone, the Eagles will look to a pair of new leaders for the 2009-10 season. Kristin Roach and Jess Wohl will assume new leadership roles this year as they take the reigns as team captains.
Newcomers
Linn is hopeful that all of the newcomers, especially Briana Emig, Wesley Blassneck, Lauren Kalinosky, and Helena Tolic can all contribute immediately.
Sprints
Having graduated their top sprinter from last year in Ricard, the Eagles will look to upperclassmen, junior Sarah Kowalski and senior Steph Cholyk, to fill in. Cholyk was one of four Eagle women to make the Academic All-MAC squad last year with a 3.64 GPA in biology. Tolic will also be a key addition to the sprint swimmers.
Distance
Emig, Blassneck, Samantha Partridge and Katie Simmons will all contribute in the distance races. Partridge was a second team All-MAC selection in 2009 and set new EMU records in the 1,650 free (16:45.87) and 400 IM (4:20.06).
Butterfly
Elisa Torres is the top returning swimmer in this event after turning in a fourth place performance in the 200 fly and an eighth place finish in the 100 fly at the MAC Championships last year. Her time in the 200 fly (2:01.05) was a new EMU record. Wohl, Samantha Nameth, Leeza Moser and Lauren Zafir are four other good flyers for the Eagles as well.
Backstroke
Sarah Maraskine swam solid at the MAC Championships last year with three top-7 finishes. The sophomore will lead a slew of backstroke swimmers in the 2009-10 season. Michele Gingher, Amanda Kiefer, Tracy Morgan and Kalinosky will also be heavy contributors.
Breaststroke
Chelsea Allard appears poised to fill in for Durand after swimming to a varsity record in the 100 breaststroke at the MAC Championships last season, finishing seventh overall to go with another seventh place finish in the 200 breaststroke. Sheila Carson won't be far behind while freshman Vanessa Weidner looks to be right in the mix.
Relays
“It remains to be seen,” Linn said of his relay prospects since losing virtually everyone from last year's relay teams. Without saying exactly who he thinks might emerge in each relay event, he did shed some light on his expectations. “The potential is good to be better than last year.”
Diving
“Danielle Hulvey is our top recruit and basically as talented as I've ever seen,” Head Coach Loren “Buck” Smith said. “We went from one diver to six and that's a big jump as far as how many points we can score.”
Junior Leslie Vizurraga is a perennial MAC finalist, finishing 10th in the three-meter and eighth in the one meter dive last season. With several more divers on the roster and a lot of incoming talent joining the squad, Smith showed a lot of excitement heading into the year.
“I have great kids,” Smith said. “It's been a lot of fun so far and I think we're going to do well.”
The Eagles will begin the 2009-10 season with a full weekend slate of competition. Bowling Green comes to the Jones Natatorium tonight for a 5 p.m. tilt and then Toledo and UW-Milwaukee will visit for a 1 p.m. start on Saturday.
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