Swimming looks to return to an age of glory

This year, the men's and women's swimming teams celebrate 100 and 25 years, respectively, of storied tradition-- and dominance.

JULIA TIERNAN/YH Swimming strives to recover a star-studded past.

"This is a special season, and we'd like to do well, given that it's the 100th season," men's captain Steven Gold, MC '99, said. "We're tradition-rich. Yale was the powerhouse in the whole United States."

But as the cliché goes, "No guts, no glory," and the men have taken it upon themselves to work harder this year to improve upon last year's 9-3 record (5-2 Ivy) and fifth-place finish at Easterns. The team's three losses were to Harvard, Princeton, and Navy. In Easterns, they lost to these same three teams and Brown.

One of the team's primary goals is to beat Navy. "They've beaten us the past three years. Harvard and Princeton will be our toughest challenges outside of Navy," Gold said. "We want to beat Navy," Will Coker, JE '00, agreed. "We want to destroy Brown."

One reason to expect improvement is the team's newfound dedication to practice. Coker said that last spring, the team decided it wanted to work harder. "We wanted people to be more serious about the practice schedule," he said. Head coach Frank Keefe, who has coached the men since 1978, said, "It was decided basically by the team to tighten up the requirements; it's a varsity sport."

The team's rigorous practice regimen includes a minimum of eight practices each week, including one every afternoon from 3:30 to 6:00 p.m. and two morning practices each week. Gold said that some swimmers practice up to 11 times each week. The members swim 7,000 to 8,000 yards each practice and then put in half an hour of grueling dry-land work, which includes medicine ball workouts, swim benches, and lifting.

This work ethic has made the team especially optimistic about the upcoming season. "We are pretty confident that we'll be better than last year," Gold said. "We're a much better organized team this year," Coker added. "We have more of a sense of a team mission and a certain cohesiveness that we haven't had the last few years."

The men's team is counting on returning key swimmers, such as George Gleason, TC '01, and Michael Caperonis, CC '01. Gold and Jeremy Fain, DC '99, lead a strong senior class, which is supplemented by talented freshmen. "We have the right combination all the way around," Coker said.

Meanwhile, the women's team also has a storied past, and they too have dedicated themselves to working harder this season in hopes of attaining glory. "We have an awesome work ethic this year," captain Kate Ivers, BK '99, said. "The team is way more intense."

The women's team is following the same schedule as the men's team. Last year, the women finished 7-4, with losses to Harvard, Princeton, Brown, and Villanova, and finished fourth at the Ivy Championships. Prior to last season, the women's team had captured three league championships in the past four years. "We want to get back up to the competitive level of '96 and '97," Ivers said. She noted that this season is already the most intense effort she has seen in her four years at Yale.

Ivers said that the swimmers are inspired by the team's 25th anniversary. "The history behind Yale swimming is definitely a morale boost," she said. "This is the toughest time [to motivate oneself], and to see the Olympians and what they've done is a big boost," she added, referring to the gathering of Yale swim team alumni that took place two weeks ago.

The women's team, however, is starting from a disadvantage this season because it graduated nine big point- scorers. Keefe said that the team will now be a sprint and freestyle-oriented team, as opposed to last year's team, which was stronger in distance events.

Keefe predicted that Ivers, Lindsay Wolter, BK '99, Shannon Dunlap, BR '01, Michelle Schleater, DC '99, and Chrissey Frey, SY '00, will be among the top swimmers in the league. The team also has a fast crop of freshmen, led by Emily Grant, DC '02, who was the Northeast Junior National Champion last year, and has already qualified for the 2000 Olympic trials. "[The Women will] hurt most in depth, whereas with the men, we're deep," Keefe said.

But in this landmark year in Yale swimming, both the men's and women's teams are putting in the extra work so they can live up to the gloried Yale swimming tradition.

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