Of course FIU's swimming & diving team left Miami for Knoxville to finish the job at 6 a.m. Monday, which means a wakeup call at Really Dark Thirty. Like the armed forces and youth hockey families on the weekend, they're often on the third screen of their day when even most other diligent athletes are just finding their "Play" button.
The job sits unfinished, with one more task on the schedule: the Conference USA meet that starts Wednesday and finishes Saturday night.
Seven teams will show up. Three matter: FIU; Rice, the defending C-USA champion to whom FIU finished second last year; and Western Kentucky, to whom FIU finished second at the 2013 Sun Belt Championships but beat in last year's Conference USA meet.
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly shooting for the gold.
Notice the seconds for FIU in the above paragraph. Proud accomplishments, both. The 2013 Sun Belt second represented a two-spot improvement from 2012. Last year, FIU's move to the stronger Conference USA turned the conference meet into a water version of The Red Queen's race -- it took all the swimming they could do to stay in the same place. They did.
But, this year, winning the conference, "would mean everything," according to seniors Klara Andersson and Johanna Gustafsdottir. Each said that, separately.
FIU didn't come within a Kenya of the 2012 Sun Belt title, though they swept Swimmer of the Year (Gustafsdottir) and Diver of the Year (Sabrina Beaupre). FIU pulled off the same sweep last year with Sonia Perez and Beaupre. In 2013, FIU won nine events. Beaupre won Diver of the Year. Gustafsdottir got rooked on the Swimmer of the Year call after winning two individual events and being on three relay winners. Still didn't get it done in the team standings.
What will get it done is obvious.
“We’re a more well-rounded team this year," FIU coach Randy Horner said. "Our diving is better and deeper. We have five divers this year, where we had only two on the roster last year. The quality is good as well. Our freshman class this year has been one of the best we’ve had depth-wise as well as top end talent. And, they’re performing like it. Everybody in the program has improved. That’s what it takes is a full team effort to win a title like the one we’re going after. In the past, we’ve won individual events. We’ve won stuff here and there. We’ve won Swimmer of the year, Diver of the Year. But it takes a full roster without a weakness to win the team championship."
Here's an easy example of how much more depth FIU brings to the party. Gustafsdottir is the defending conference 200 backstroke champion. Freshman Silvia Scalia now holds FIU's 100 back record that Gustafsdottir held since the 2012 Sun Belt meet. Freshman diver Rebecca Quensel, five-time C-USA Diver of the Week, leads a group that'll keep FIU from being overwhelmed on sheer numbers as it was even the years Beaupre dominated individually.
Expect FIU to get more points in the breaststroke events, where Andersson (100 breast) and Jean Madison (200 breast) scored last year and freshman Chase Harris could, too. Butterflier Valeri Inghels, a junior transfer from Auburn, should get FIU more points in the butterfly. Inghels and Scalia alone should help in the medley relays, where FIU finished sixth (200) and fourth (400) at last year's meet. If nothing else, they're one of several swimmers who give Horner options. He said other than the 800 free relay,
"The 4x100 free relay, which is the last event of the meet, I think I have eight or nine girls we could have on there and we'd do just fine," Horner said. "But figuring out who the best four are is going to be one of the toughest decisions we make. It's good to have those choices. Usually by the fourth day of a meet like that, sometimes, it's the last horse standing."
A strong freshman class gives FIU more sea horses. As usual, some of those freshmen, including the Italian Scalia, come from overseas. That spreads another layer of uncertainty onto projecting a recruit. In addition to the changes shaking the ground under American recruits feet, you've can often add a different base language and educational system.
"We’re very pleased with how our young swimmers have some in," Horner said. "I think that’s a testament to our upperclassmen for welcoming them in and kind of putting them under their wings. All of our girls live in the same dorm together. I think that goes a long way to integrating them into the team and make them feel a big part of it. We do a lot of teamwork from Day 1, team building.
"It’s something you teach and coach in the cutulre of the program year after year," he said. "We’re now in my fifth year here. We’re getting juniors and seniors who have been here so you don’t have to tell them. They understand that’s their role and it’s important. We’ve had people in the past when it didn’t happen like that, and they’ve seen the results. They understand how important that, as much as how our practices are, how we train, the culture of the team and how we work together, is huge.
Gustafsdottir said, "We have studs in every event. That’s how we won dual meets this year with our depth.”
They won them all, you know. A perfect 10-0, climaxed as if off a cliche-ridden film school script: a one-point win against the University of Miami decided by a skin tight outtouch on the final relay.
“I cried my eyes out. I was so proud," Gustafsdottir said. "It just shows you how far we’ve come from having teams, freshman year, that we were so far behind. And being undefeated this year. It’s the best feeling, leaving like that.
“When they came in and we saw the scoreboard, we all just screamed. I’m not going to say it was like winning conference, but the feeling was…I don’t know, I can’t describe it.”
Andersson said, "There’s no words. It was an awesome feeling. Beating UM in the last meet. It was just the perfect end to my last dual meet season. I have a couple of friends from home, Sweden, that swim for UM, so obviously it feels pretty good to beat them too.”
Andersson also was conscious of the recent history between the two schools. As in, none for four years.
Horner's in his fifth year at FIU. That's five years in a city where the most canonized sports team of all owes its status to "and 0." Five years at a school and department wanting to be seen at least as equals to the nearby smaller school that carries the municipal nomenclature that fits FIU more. Still, he seemed a bit puzzled by the happy hoopla, such as it was.
“It was very satisfying, very happy. I feel like we’ve gotten more praise and recognition out of those two accomplishments than we have with anything we’ve done," he said. "And I feel like we’ve done a lot of other things that may have been even more significant – sweeping swimmer and diver of the year in the past, been one of the top programs in academics on campus. We’ve won the Champs Life Skills Award. Last year, we beat Georgia Tech out of the ACC, which was a good win for us.
"For some reason, that rung louder and got more praise and recognition. I’m happy for the girls because they work their butts off. They deserve the praise and recognition for what they’ve achieved. It’s hard not to stumble somewhere so that’s a good testament to them."
Horner did take something perhaps important from that 150-149 win.
"I think one of the most satisfying things was UM came in against us blazing," he said. "They wore fast suits and everything else which really rattled our girls at first. They were like 'What’s going on?' I feel like it was a great test, in hindsight, because that’s the kind of battle they’re going to be up against for four days at the championship – that kind of heated racing, battles back and forth. So, in hindsight, coming out of that with a win, squeaking by, coming down to the last race, probably was the best thing that could’ve happened to us to prepare us for the (conference) championship.”
So now, to paraphrase the classic call by Howie Rosen, the Panthers have one more hill to climb. There's gold up on that hill awaiting the women of FIU...or Rice...or Western Kentucky.
Four days from now, we'll know who got good, bad or ugly enough to climb that hill.
Comments