The 1995-96 women’s swim team enters the 1995 season with optimism and hope for a repeat performance as the Missouri Valley Conference champion.

Last year was the first year swimming was recognized as an official sport by the MVC. In his fourth season as head coach for the women, Mark Kluemper has his eyes on the MVC championship.

We want to win the Missouri Valley meet…I think the biggest challenge will come from Illinois State University; they’ve got a good swimming program, he said. Evansville would have an outside shot at the title also.

Advertisement

Another goal of the coaching staff is to finish up strong at the end of the season.

Excellence at the end of the season is what we’re really focusing on, Kluemper said. Last year we kind of focused in on some dual meets during the year maybe a little bit more that I feel is appropriate this year. Although the dual meets are important, Kluemper said that the team is trying to view them as a mid-term test.

The SIUC women’s swim team will begin competition when they host their first meet Saturday against Evansville and Henderson State. The swimmers have been training since Sept. 7.

According to Kluemper, the meet will be a good chance to see exactly where the team stands.

I expect them to race hard on Saturday. We’re not expecting any real fast swims, he said. But it will be good just to get them into the water and give them a chance to race and see what they can do, they’re really looking forward to that.

Kluemper’s goals could very well be realized this season as new talent mixes with seasoned veterans. Kluemper said he is looking for his newcomeers to surprise a lot of people. The three that we’ve got I think are real talented and also diamonds in the rough, he said. I think they’ve got a real potential to blossom on a college level, so we’re pretty excited about that.

The new class of swimmers at SIUC brings sophomore Stefanie Merritt, a junior college transfer from Albany, Ga.

Advertisement*

Stefanie has a lot of untapped potential, said Kluemper. Kathleen Flannery, a graduate of Salem High School in Virginia Beach, Va., is the true freshman on the list of newcomers _ Kathleen is a multi-talented swimmer, he said. She can do a lot of different races, a lot of different strokes, and is really going to be counted on.

By the end of the season, she’s gonna be up there competing with the best people we’ve got.

The third new recruit for the women is freshman diver Lydia Ball of Centennial High School in Champaign.

There are four seniors this year and Kluemper says that they are the real heart of the team.

It is a real team effort and the talent is really spread around…we do have a real good senior class. It is a real experienced senior class and I really expect to see some leadership and I’ve already seen the seniors step up and take leadership role, he said.

Kluemper said to look for the swimming and dive teams to put forth extra effort this year due to the upcoming Olympic season.

During an Olympic year everybody gets a litter faster. When you first think of it, you think only the real cream of the crop are involved in making the team. It kind of wakes everybody up and so everybody swims faster and gets a little more motivated knowing that the Olympics are coming up.