Falcon swimmers looking strong at season's midpoint

At roughly the halfway point of the season, the UW-River Falls swimming and diving teams are striving for continued success in and above the pool.

The Falcon women have won three of the four dual meets so far, topping UW-Oshkosh, Macalester College and Lawrence University, while falling to UW-Eau Claire. The Falcon men have yet to record a team win as far as total points, but Head Coach Bill Henderson said the record is deceiving.

“Our men swam extremely well in all four meets. If you look at when our swimmers left the pool, I think we would have won every time. But it’s hard to make up points when we don’t have anything from diving,” he said.

The lack of diving points from the men’s side can be explained by the team not having a male diver on the roster. Without ample pool space to host diving platforms, getting divers to commit to the team is sometimes a tough sell, though not impossible, according to Henderson.

The Falcon women have four divers on the roster in Megan Murphy, Kristen Kivela, Nicole Greseth and Heather Borchet-Eble.

Senior men’s captain Mike Brudzinski said the team has been making great strides coming together both in and out of the water. 

“Our season just seems to be getting better. When you look at our times they are improving week to week and are considerably better than they were last year. Team camaraderie is also improved. We are a much closer knit group than we have been the last two years,” he said.

Women’s captain Jill Lambach agreed that the strong start to the season has really increased the overall confidence of the group.

“Everyone just keeps working hard and improving. The depth of our team has been a big reason for our success. Whether someone is winning or finishing high enough to earn points, we seem to be covering the events,” she said.

For the Falcons, there are short-term and season ending goals for the team and individual swimmers that everyone has their eye on, according to Henderson.

“Team wise, I think the men could be moving up to fifth in the conference and the women up to fourth. Individually we just need everyone to keep hitting their goal times that we set at the beginning of the year. We will reevaluate after the Falcon Invite, but I am pleased with where the team is going. We are as strong as we have been in 10 or 12 years,” he said.

The Falcon Invite will be held in Minneapolis on Dec. 5 and 6, and will be a major measuring stick to judge the teams’ accomplishments according to this year’s captains.