Oct. 21, 2009

Full Season Preview

MARYLAND MEN'S SWIMMING AND DIVING PREVIEW

This is part five of a five-part series previewing the Maryland men'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

Maryland welcomes three new divers to the board this season as freshmen Eric Sachs, Tim Tolino and Emmanuel Motsiopoulus are all poised to kick off their Maryland careers in 2009-10.

All three divers come from accomplished programs in the state of Maryland. Motsiopolous is a four-time champion in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association in the 1-meter, Tolino was a four-time letterwinner at Middletown High School and Sachs finished fifth at the Metro Championships as a senior at Rockville High School.

"Here are three guys that are excited about and have pride about filling that gap that we had last year and adding to what we are trying to do here as a team."

OVERVIEW

While the main storyline for this year's Maryland men's swimming and diving team is youth, the Terps do return a steady flow of returners that are poised to make an impact in the 2009-10 season.

Maryland has 14 fresh faces on this year's roster but will rely heavily on several key returners including school-record holders Mitch Challacombe, Andrew Relihan, Brian Honore and Aleksandar Damjanic. The Terps did lose the talent and leadership of departed seniors such as Eric Cullen and Andy Dilz, but appear ready for the challenge.

"We lost a lot of impact players that graduated last year, so it's very different," Schimmel said. "I think even with those seniors walking out the door, we are going to be better than we were last year. We swam lights out last year and broke a lot of school records, but I don't think we had enough depth. This year, we have that depth."

Schimmel, who's Terps finished eighth at the ACC Championships in his first season as head coach at Maryland last year, embraces the idea of this season beginning anew.

"Every year, with college athletics, it's a whole new team and that's a great thing. But really, with our guys, it's a whole new team this year. It's completely new," Schimmel said. "We have so many new freshmen faces to be added to the mix. Our goal is to be in the top half of the league. I think our guys are much more focused on being that better team. The upperclassmen are bringing these freshmen in right, helping them stay in line with our training, mentality and work ethic so we will be able to hit our goals in November and our goals in February and go to NCAAs as well."

Maryland opens its 2009-10 campaign with a dual meet versus Johns Hopkins on Friday at 3 p.m. at the Eppley Natatorium.