The MU swimming and diving team’s offseason work will come into play at its first Black and Gold Intersquad meet Friday and season opener Saturday.
“Really, this meet is about getting ready to start off the season,” coach Greg Rhodenbaugh said. “It’s about getting them to go off the block and getting the swimmers used to racing each other in a meet situation to get them ready for Saturday.”
The team will host the Show-Me Showdown Invite on Saturday. The meet will be a chance to acquaint team members with the Missouri swimming scene, as teams from universities across Missouri will be in attendance for the two-session meet.
“It’s a different order of events,” Rhodenbaugh said. “We’re just trying to get ready for the year by seeing everybody in the state of Missouri. It’s a really fun event.”
A co-ed team comprised of just under 60 athletes, Missouri swimming and diving attracts students from around the world. Mark Conroy, a sophomore swimmer from England, described how the priority MU places on athletics appeals to recruits around the globe.
“I always wanted to come to the U.S. just because they’re so much bigger on sports in college,” Mark Conroy said. “The facility here at Mizzou is the best I’ve ever seen. There are a lot of small things that are different here that I think really help, too. Maybe a few different exercises in the weight room or dryland. I definitely do a lot more running here than I did in England.”
The team will look to build upon an impressive track record established last year. Two swimmers placed second at the NCAA Championships and the team as a whole placed 22nd and 23rd, one of the best finishes in Missouri school history.
“(Our) expectations are to build on that success,” Rhodenbaugh said. “We’d like to try to get some relays up, get more people into NCAAs than we had last year and to try to get up into the teens as far as team finishes.”
After experiencing the taste of collegiate success, junior swimmer Dominique Bouchard said the team is excited about the opportunity to continue forward and improve on its achievements.
“I’m looking forward to this team getting better,” Bouchard said. “We are in so much better shape than we have been in the past, and I think the team itself is going to do greater things than we accomplished last year.”
In a sport that is as much mental as it is physical, individual athletes set personal goals that drive themselves toward improving their times and scores.
“I have a team goal for the women’s team to have four relays qualify for NCAAs,” Bouchard said. “Also, qualifying for the Canadian Olympics definitely would be my main goal this year, and I’d like to lower my conference record in the 200-yard backstroke.”
Bouchard said the team has a commitment toward excellence and is collectively embracing a lifestyle of hard work heading into the upcoming season.
“We’re definitely working really hard,” she said. “We’re lifting a lot more weight this year. We’ve run further than we ever have. The whole team is living the championship lifestyle and that’s what we have to do to achieve the goals that we want.”
