2006-07 Maryland Swimming and Diving Season Outlook
10/23/2006 8:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
Oct. 23, 2006
This season, the 2006-07 Maryland men's swimming and diving team is eager to improve on last year's 3-8 overall record, 0-8 ACC record, and eighth-place finish at the ACC Championships. The team welcomes eight freshmen and one sophomore transfer this season. Overall, this year's squad is young; head coach Dave Durden comments, "Not only are we young, but we are youthful. It is just going to be a process for them to develop."
In addition to the plethora of young talent on the team, the Terps will be led by four strong and experienced seniors. Coach Durden believes that senior Danny Gray (Carlisle, Pa.) will continue to step up in the free events and will go to NCAAs and score. Concerning Gray last season, Durden says, "In any other year at the NCAA level he would have made it, but unfortunately the standards just got really fast last year, and he was not one of the guys invited to the NCAA meet. Now it's time for him to get his ticket automatically."
Durden refers to senior Tony Miller (Severna Park, Md.) as being a true student athlete, a person who academically and athletically exemplifies what Maryland Swimming is all about. Miller is a chemical engineering major and recently swam in the World Championship Trials for the first time in two events. Two years ago Miller saw limited action at the conference and national level, but has developed into a triple event scorer looking to be in the final eight at the conference meet this season.
Freshman Aleksandar Damjanic (Zagreb, Croatia) is the only international swimmer on the squad this season and will be a great addition to the team, bringing depth to the fly events. He has shown his skill in the water during the early team practices this season and Durden is excited to see what he can do when he is put into a race environment.
Durden feels that to improve on last season's performance, the team needs to understand how good they are. He feels that this is a team of good swimmers but they need to develop the right mindset in order to let that show. As an example, Durden notices that junior Eric Thomasson (Severna Park, Md.) had a wonderful summer; he is more confident and has increased his level of competition. Durden believes Thomasson's confidence is the result of realizing he is a strong swimmer. Fortunately this attitude change has spread to the entire team. Durden sees the rest of the team adopting this culture of understanding as well. "Despite what I was telling them, they probably moved throughout last season thinking that they were about an eighth-place ACC team. Once they got to ACCs and saw how fast everyone was swimming, they started to believe in each other, how good they were, and how good they could be."
Durden (University of California-Irvine, '98) is excited to be entering his second season with the Terps, as he is "a year more experienced with the players already in the program." Kevin Clements (Auburn, '02) is also returning for his second season as assistant coach of the Terps. The staff welcomes two assistant coaches: Jarod Schroeder (Northern Illinois, '95) and Demerae Christianson (Auburn '04) who have a wealth of experience to offer the program. Also, Casey Moore (Maryland, '00) will be the head diving coach this season. Durden comments that with Moore, he "knows that the divers are being educated and that they will be brought to a level they have not experienced before."
The men's team begins the 2006-07 Season on Friday, October 27 at home against Johns Hopkins. Their first ACC meet will be held in Durham, North Carolina against NC State and Duke on Saturday November 4. Maryland will host four home meets this season, including the Terrapin Invitational November 16-18. This year's ACCs will be held in Chapel Hill, N.C. February 21-24 and the NCAA Championships will be held in Minneapolis, Minn. March 15-17.
On Saturday, February 3, the Terps are set to swim away against Virginia, who are the defending ACC Champions. Durden says, "We have athletes that are competing at the highest level, we have athletes at World Championship Trials, and we have athletes that will go to NCAAs this year. We just need to start grasping that and understanding that."
