Lehigh University Athletics
Swimming and diving heads to Bucknell for PL Championships
2/16/2011 7:36:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving
Swimming and diving heads to Bucknell for PL Championships
Lehigh has won three women's Patriot League Championships (1998, 2000 and 2001) and two men's titles (1999 and 2002). Head Coach Rob Herb is excited about the potential his teams will bring into the championships.
“This is the fastest Lehigh swim team in program history,” said Herb. “They are always trying to beat past times and eclipse school records. They are ready to start winning the Patriot League Championship again.”
This weekend, Herb thinks that a conservative goal would be for both teams to maintain their fourth place standing from the previous year.
On the women's side Navy, Bucknell and Colgate have a strong hold on the top three spots, but with the talent and hard work that the Mountain Hawks posses, they have the potential to keep breaking school records.
“This year there has been a definite attitude,” said senior Taylor Foxworth. “Everyone works hard and swims every race until the end. Some girls have already registered their personal bests.”
Lehigh will continue to look for strong individual performances by freshman Meredith Bayer and sophomore Emily DiDonato. Bayer captured the 100 yard backstroke, the 200 back and 100 fly in Lehigh's recent loss to Bucknell, while DiDonato placed first in the 200 breast against Army. DiDonato placed seventh in the championship finals in the 200 breaststroke as a freshman.The women's team will look to build on a record-breaking relay performance during last year's championship meet, where they shattered school records in four relay events and established eight new women's school records overall.
Herb believes that the men have the ability to eclipse last year's fourth place position at the Patriot League meet this year.
“The men have a real good shot at breaking into the top three,” said Herb. “In order them to do that, they will have to simply outrace everyone else.”
The Mountain Hawks are coming off of a dual season where they won their first eight meets, before falling to Army and Bucknell. The team is hoping for an all-around effort during the weekend.
“Our goal for the meet is to score more points than last year,” said sophomore Tyler Lareau. “We want to achieve this with everyone scoring, and hopefully we can move up in the ranks by taking points away from the top teams.”
Last year in the Patriot League meet, the men accumulated 427 total points, with Navy, Bucknell and Army finishing ahead of them.
“Navy has always been a powerhouse since they joined the Patriot League,” said Lareau. “We always try to compete with Bucknell and Army since we swim [against] them in the regular season, so we have little rivalries with them.”
Lehigh will be returning a handful of big contributors from last year's competition. Lareau and sophomore Alex Aboud broke individual school records in the 100 back and 400 IM respectively. Juniors Chris Toth and Kevin Shoemaker have also been registering strong performances all season for the Mountain Hawks.Practices during the final four weeks leading up to the meet have gradually reduced intensity. Herb says that they are working on tapering, which means that the swimmers are resting their fast-twitch muscles. This is effective in rebuilding power and explosion.
Although the practices don't require the usual amount of effort, the Mountain Hawks are still staying focused in their preparation.
“Our mindset going into the meet is that is our last time to race, get some best times and score the most points as possible,” said Lareau. “We know that every race is going to be close so we got to dig deep and finish strong.”
The Patriot League Championship starts Thursday at Bucknell's Kinney Natatorium and runs through Saturday. Preliminaries begin at 10:30 a.m. each day with the daily finals set for a 6 p.m. start. A video stream of the Patriot League Championships can be seen live through Patriot League All-Access.
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