Terps Season Opener to Take Place Friday Against Johns Hopkins
10/26/2006 8:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
Oct. 26, 2006
The Maryland men's swimming and diving team is set to open the 2006-07 season this Friday, October 27. The meet will begin at 3:00 against Johns Hopkins at Maryland's Eppley Recreation Center.
The men's team enters this season coming off of an eighth-place finish at the 2006 ACC Championships. The men look to improve on last season's 3-8 overall record and 0-8 record in the ACC. Nine newcomers (eight freshmen and one sophomore transfer) along with 13 returning swimmers comprise this year's team. The Terps are lead by head coach Dave Durden in his second season at Maryland. Kevin Clements returns to Maryland in his second season as assistant coach and the Terps welcome assistant coaches Demerae Christianson and Jarod Schroeder for their first season at Maryland. Casey Moore leads the 2006-07 diving team in her first season as Maryland's head diving coach.
Johns Hopkins opened their season last Saturday, October 21 with a 169.5-101.5 loss against Navy. The Blue Jays won five out of the total 16 events.
Last year against Johns Hopkins:
- The Terps defeated the Blue Jays 130-99. Howard University also swam in the event.
- Senior Danny Gray (Carlisle, Pa.) won the 100-yard freestyle (46.79).
- Sophomore John Closs (New Providence, N.J.) finished fifth in the 50 free (22.43), and sophomore Jake DiPiazza (Silver Spring, Md.) took seventh (23.27).
- Closs also had a second-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke (59.19) followed by senior Tim Shepard (Catonsville, Md.) in fourth (59.31) and senior Tony Miller (Severna Park, Md.) in sixth (1:00.49).
- Junior Eric Thomasson (Severn, Md.) finished sixth in the 100 breast (54.15).
- Junior Ken Golaszewski swam to a third-place finish in the 1000 free (10:05.36)
- Sophomore Derek Hock (Aliquippa, Pa.) won the 3-meter dive (277.05).
Men at a glance:
Senior Andrew Doeck (Boca Raton, Fla.) will add depth in the butterfly events. Doeck ended last season by notching a personal record in the 200 fly (1:56.22) at ACCs. Senior Danny Gray (Carlisle, Pa.) will swim the freestyle events. He comes off a silver medal, school record-setting swim in the 50-yard freestyle (19.91) at the 2006 ACCs. Senior Tony Miller (Severna Park, Md.), who swims the individual medley and breaststroke, set personal records in the 200 IM (1:50.27), in the 400 IM (3:58.72) and in the 200 breast (2:02.18) at last year's ACCs. Senior Tim Shepard (Catonsville, Md.) will add depth to the breaststroke events. Shepard set personal records at last year's ACCs in the 200 IM (1:54.33) and the 100 breast (57.59).
Junior Eric Thomasson (Severna Park, Md.) adds depth in the butterfly events. Last season, he was a part of the second-place 400 medley relay team against Johns Hopkins and he won the 200 IM against UNC with a career-best time of 1:59.71. Junior Ken Golaszewski (Boulder, Colo.) swims the freestyle events and comes off a 20th overall finish in the 500 free at the ACC Championships (4:36.87). Golaszewski also set a personal record in the 200 free at ACCs (1:43.09) and finished 15th overall in the 1650 free (16:05.02) at the 2006 ACCs.
Sophomore John Closs (New Providence, N.J.) set personal records at last year's ACC Championships in the 50 free (21.73) and in the 100 free (47.46). Closs adds depth to the freestyle and breaststroke events; he swam a 1:01.49 in the 100 breast at the 2006 ACCs. Sophomore Jake DiPiazza (Silver Spring, Md.) swims the freestyle and butterfly events. DiPiazza had a successful showing at last year's ACCs where he set personal records in the 50 free (21.24), 100 free (46.47) and 100 fly (51.51). Sophomore Kyle Glennon (Jarrettsville, Md.) set personal records at the 2006 ACC Championships in the 50 free (21.96), 100 fly (51.33), and 100 free (48.16). Sophomore Dong Kim (Bucks Co., Pa.) joined the team late in the 2005-06 season and was able to place individually in the 50 free (ninth, 20.37) and in the 100 back (15th, 50.08) at the 2006 ACC Championships. Sophomore diver Derek Hock (Aliquippa, Pa.) placed 11th overall in the 1-meter dive (248.55) and 18th in the 3-meter dive (238.05) at 2006 ACCs. Rounding out the sophomore class is Andrew Weinert (Allentown, Pa.) who comes off of a contribution to a fourth-place finish in the 200 free relay (1:20.81), sixth-place finish in the 200 medley relay (1:30.21), and eighth-place finish in the 400 medley relay (3:19.74) for the Terps at the 2006 ACC Championships.
The newcomers to this year's team include freshmen: Riyad Bandak, Brian Brockunier (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.), Aleksandar Damjanic (Zagreb, Croatia), Ryan Greene (Minnetonka, Minn.), Patrick Meck (Rockville, Md.), Kevin Reardon (Voorhees, N.J.), Chris Rouchard (Westlake, Ohio), and Spencer Wike (Sterling, Ill.). In addition, sophomore Chris Chambers (Cheverly, Md.) will join the Terps after transferring from the University of Massachusetts.
See the Terps kick off the 2006-07 season this Friday, October 27 in a home meet against Johns Hopkins, starting at 3:00.
