Swim team makes a splash at St. John’s

The UW-River Falls men’s and women’s swim team competed at the St. John’s Invite on Dec. 1 and 2. The women finished in first place at the dual meet, while the men finished fourth out of four competing teams.

Though the meet was rough for the Falcon men, they are not letting it get them down for the remainder of the season.

“This season is going great. Everyone on the team is having a really good time,” junior Tom Fritchen said. “Everyone is getting along really well.”

Sophomore Danielle Mandich agreed.

“The season is going really well,” she said. “Many of our meets have been very close and everyone on the team continues to have great swims.”

This season has been strenuous for all the athletes involved, even the older swimmers with more experience.

“The whole season has been a little tougher than years’ past,” junior Anthony Yarusso said.  “I think the extra work is definitely paying off. Many of us have already accomplished our goal times.”

Individual athletes have goals they hope to accomplish before the end of the season. They also hope to accomplish team goals.

“Personally my goal this season is to place at Conference in at least two individual events and to place in the top four in any of the relays that I am in,” Mandich said. “A team goal is to place better than last season at Conference finals and for everyone to get at least one lifetime best this season.”

Though the Falcons have made it through half of the season, they’re not even close to being done yet.

“We’re at about midseason and we only have a few more swim meets before winter break which we go to California to train for 10 days,” Fritchen said.

Following the trip to California and the J-Term break, the team will only have a few weeks left of practice before heading off to the conference meet.

Mandich described how she finds swimming to be so much different.

“Everyone on the team gets along very well and everyone encourages each other both during practice and at meets,” Mandich said. “Even though swimming is an individual sport we have a very close team and it is nice to know that when you are up on the blocks, you have an entire team that is cheering for you and truly cares about your race.”

This weekend, the women’s team competes On Saturday against Augsburg.The meet is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at Karges.