Oct. 20, 2009
Full Preview
Maryland Women's Swimming and Diving Preview
This is part five of a five-part series previewing the Maryland women's swimming and diving season.
Tuesday, Oct. 13 - Freestyle
Wednesday, Oct. 14 - Backstroke
Thursday, Oct. 15 - Breaststroke
Friday, Oct. 16 - Fly and IM
Monday, Oct. 19 - Diving and Overview
Dive
The Maryland women's swimming and diving team returns top diver Alisa Kurbatova to the board this season.
Kurbatova landed on the podium with a third-place finish in the 1-meter dive at the 2009 ACC Championships. The score also tallied in as a school record for the sophomore from Russia.
"Alisa was a huge point scorer in dual meets and at the conference championship and we are looking for that to only be better this year," head coach Sean Schimmel said. "I think some of her goals have to be building on last year and taking it that next step by going to zones and qualifying for NCAAs because she can compete with those divers at that level."
Maryland also returns two-year letterwinner Montana Puente and welcomes newcomer Kara Koszowski in 2009-10.
"It's great because we have athletes on the board this year," Schimmel said. "We are looking for big things from Kara on the platform because that is her specialty."
Overview
In addition to returning NCAA qualifiers Jen Vogel and Annie Fittin, the 2009-10 Maryland women's swimming and diving team has a solid balance of youth and experience throughout its lineup and looks to make a charge after finishing fifth at the 2009 ACC Championships.
"Coming into season two here, we are much further ahead from where we were last year in terms of everything including our training, our work ethic, identity as far as a team and who we are and who we want to be, and that is going to help set us up to accomplish our goals," head coach Sean Schimmel said. "Our goals are to be better than we have ever been before. We want to start chipping away at that top echelon of teams in the ACC and I think we can do that. With the leadership of our seniors and bringing along all the new freshmen faces that we have, we can do that."
Along with the five seniors and eight freshmen, the sophomore and junior classes will be looked upon to contribute.
"It's going to take people in that midsection to step up and get it done and score those few extra points here and there, and we can definitely be that team," Schimmel said. "We'd like to bring more girls to NCAAs and some relays as well. That's always the goal...impacting the NCAA championship as well."
Maryland opens the 2009-2010 campaign this weekend with dual meet against Johns Hopkins on Friday at 3 p.m. at Eppley Natatorium.
