Men's swimming and diving officially begins 2012/2013 competition

After participating in an eventful Homecoming Alumni Meet last weekend, the UConn men’s swimming and diving team looks to start off the season against Fordham and Bucknell at home this Saturday.

The Huskies will host the Bucknell Bison and the Fordham Rams this weekend in the first meet of the year for the UConn squad. The team has competed regularly with both of these schools over the past years, making this competition a good indicator for how their season will unfold. However, this is an oddity for the Huskies, because this will be the first time since 2004 that the team has not started off the season with the annual Husky Invitational, now called the UConn Open, which has been moved to February of 2013.

Despite this change, the team is still confident that they will have a strong performance at the beginning of the season. Coach Bob Goldberg believes that this season’s team could be one of the most impressive and successful in the history of men’s swimming and diving at this school. However, with these lofty beliefs about their potential comes an inevitable burden that will be placed entirely on the competitors and their work ethic simply because the coaches are convinced that the talent is there to excel.

But the coaches aren’t just speculating about the talent — they’ve seen it first hand. Most of last season’s team is returning, with only three competitors having graduated at the end of last year. This certainly serves as a good indicator for the Huskies as to how well they will perform Saturday afternoon.

Some of last season’s strongest competitors were juniors, including Kyungsoo Yoon, Nick Cerra, Joe Glowacki, Sean Cook, and Grant Fecteau. Included in the names listed are men’s swimming and diving school record holders and award-winning competitors in the Big East and NCAA championships. All five of these individuals have returned for a fourth and final season, forming the crux of the team’s vast experience. In addition, the team has added eight new freshmen to the roster that have spent time gleaning from their more experienced counterparts on the team. This has all the makings of a success story.

The expectations for this weekend are certainly high, as the Huskies have traditionally done well against these schools in the past. For over a decade, the men’s swimming and diving team has consistently defeated the Rams in competition at home and on the road. The Huskies have seen similar success against the Bison in recent years, besting them in a dual match last year in mid-January and again later in the month at the Bison Invitational, seizing the wins 12 out of 17 of the events. The team doesn’t expect things to change and hopes to continue those successes through this weekend’s competition and beyond.

The Huskies will take on the Bison and Rams at noon on Saturday in UConn’s Wolff-Zackin Natatorium, amounting to their first real test before taking the head-first dive into the rest of the season.