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Owl Swimmers Look to Build on Successful Weekend
KEENE, N.H. 12/8/09 - This past weekend was a very successful weekend for both the men's and women's swimming and diving teams. The men, hampered by depth, found a way to finish third at the coveted ECAC tournament for the second year in a row, and the women's team claimed their fourth consecutive Little East Conference Championship.
"Both team's had a very good weekend," said KSC head coach Jack Fabian. "In my mind, they went above and beyond what I thought they could do this time of year."
On the way to their seventh overall conference championship in eleven years, the women came together and created a new legacy for KSC swimming. "This past weekend was so exciting said KSC senior Krissy Trutor (Holden, Mass.)., who provisionally qualified in the 200 and 100 back, as well as the 200 medley relay. "It feels great to be a senior and to have won LEC's every year I have been here."
"LEC's this year was a great success, said Owl senior swimmer Jackie Foster (Goffstown, N.H.) , who qualified provisionally for the NCAA's in the 1650 free. "We are all swimming faster than we did last year at this time which only means there are good things to come for our upcoming meets."
Also competing well was freshman Kaila Umbarger (Chelmsford, Mass.) who swam to a school record and great NCAA provisional qualifying time in the 50 free with a time of 23.74. "With that time I can't see how she won't qualify for nationals," said Fabian. "For her to drop her time that drastically is something special."
Not only did the Owls win every event at the meet, but they totaled 535 points to defeat their closest competition by 232 points. "It's amazing that they won every event," said Fabian. "It wasn't that our competition was bad at all, because the other teams had some good swims, it's that our team knew it was an important meet for our school and they went out and did it."
"We told ourselves we could win every event and we did," said Trutor. "As a team we really came together and knew what we had to do."
But surprisingly, winning was not the only goal when coach Fabian and the team traveled to UMass-Dartmouth for the meet. "Conference championship's is important for us not only to win, but it really defines us as a team and one of our biggest goals to be a more cohesive unit and I think we accomplished that."
On the men's side, the weekend was an impressive display of talent and inspirational for coach Fabian to build a bigger program. "For us to compete with the bigger teams like we did is inspiring for me to go out and just recruit more kids," said Fabian. "We lost some swimmers from last year, but everybody we retained has the capacity to perform well and is committed to our team."
The weekend was highlighted by senior Domingo Rose (Nashua, N.H.) winning the 100 and 200 breaststroke in NCAA provisional qualifying times, as well as Rose fighting with teammate Connor Pennoyer (Norwalk, Conn.) for the title in the 50 free. "When Connor and Domingo lined up for the finals in the 50 free they had made up their minds that they were going to go one and two in the event," said Fabian. "We just didn't know who was going to win and Connor went out and swam a quick race and got it done."
If you were to ask the senior from Nashua, N.H., it was a total team effort. "The entire team swam out of their minds," said Rose. "We've all been working really hard this year and its fun to see it all pay off for everyone."
The first night of the weekend meet, the Owls were busy claiming the crown in the 200 medley relay with the team of Harrison Hollingsworth (Derry, N.H.), Rose, DJ Collis (Laconia, N.H.) and Pennoyer. "The medley relay has been a real strong event for us," said Fabian. "We would not have won without DJ's strong swim in the fly for us."
Overall KSC is happy to be where they are at this time of year and are looking forward to the change of pace with their winter training trip to Puerto Rico. "The pool environment will be different with a 50 meter pool, but we will use that to our advantage with some good endurance work," said Fabian. "This will be another big team building exercise for us and will give our team great energy for our tough stretch when we get back from the break."
