The popular Disney-Pixar movie Finding Nemo features a character named Dory whose motto is “just keep swimming.” After experiencing their first loss of the season, the men’s swimming and diving team is ready to emulate Dory.
Or, in the words of head coach Jason Weber, they are ready to “just keep training hard.”
“We learned a lot from the loss [to UW–Milwaukee], and we have put it behind us,” assistant coach Krista Carlson said.
With the defeat no longer on their minds, Chicago (4–1) will take on DePauw (5–0) this Saturday with the hope of adding one more to the win column before the UAA Championships on February 15–18.
“On the men’s side, the meet will be very close, so it’s hard to say how it will go, but look for our divers to do really well and for [first-years] Andrew Angeles, Andrew Salomon, and George Gvakharia to have some big wins for us,” Weber said.
The meet this weekend is important because it is the team’s last before conference competition begins.
“Right now the coaches are doing everything we can to make sure our athletes are mentally and physically ready for conference,” Carlson said. Preparation for the meet included training hard all of this past week to extinguish memories of the loss and looking ahead to this weekend and beyond.
“[The swimmers and divers] always tend to do better at home than when travelling for a dual meet,” Weber said. The tendency to swim better at Ratner Athletic Center is something the team must not get used to, given that the UAA Championships and NCAA Championships take place on the road, in Cleveland, Ohio and in Indianapolis, Indiana, respectively.
Aware of what they need to work on—namely, training hard and not getting too comfortable at Ratner—the team is ready to swim against DePauw this weekend, with an added bonus for spectators who arrive early.
“Should be one of the most exciting dual meets all season for both teams,” Weber said, “plus, it’s our last home dual meet so we’ll be honoring the seniors before the meet starts.”
The first swimmers will take to the waters of Myers-McLoraine Pool this Saturday at 1 p.m.
