The St. Bonaventure women’s swimming and diving team is closing in on the conclusion of the 2016 season, with the Atlantic 10 Championship meet beginning Wednesday, Feb. 17 in Geneva, Ohio.
Head coach Krista Carlson is hard at work preparing her team, which placed 10th at last seasons championship.
At last year’s meet, Tanja Kirmse led the Bonnies. The Burghausen, Germany native placed seventh in the 500-yd freestyle, swimming a final time of 4:56.02, and also placed fourth overall in the 200-yd butterfly by swimming a time of 2:02.34.
Coach Carlson will be counting on not only Kirmse, but the entire senior class Tanja, Liz Malone, Adelyn Graf, Shannon Heberman, Alexa Scanlan Taylor Anderson and Katie Winterburn. “Our seniors are really key players,” Carslon said. Adding “Our senior class is going to be a very pivotal class for us to do well.”
Coming off a year where the team finished 10th overall, Carlson is looking for the team to improve on that finish at this year’s meet. “We are really looking to come away from this as a stronger team,” the second year coach said.
“We’d love to see ourselves higher in the Atlantic 10 standings, that is always a great goal to have. As a team we are looking to make some good changes and come away from this meet as a better team overall.”
In addition to Kirmse and the senior class, St. Bonaventure will look to Devon McFaddenwho turned in an impressive sophomore season. McFadden is confident in the teams training and hopes that it will lead to a better championship performance.
“I’m feeling pretty confident in it, I think our whole team is,” the sophomore said. Adding “I think we will show up this year and swim well.”
Senior Liz Malone is also looking forward to seeing how the long year of training is going to pay off. “We are all really confident with the taper that we are doing right now,” the senior said. “We are all really excited. Obviously you’re a little nervous because you train the entire year for just the three days, but we are excited and I think we are going to do really well.”
The Atlantic 10 Championships will be held at the Spire Institute in Geneva, Ohio. Prelims begin at 10:00 AM with finals following at 6:00 PM.
For championship information, please visit the Atlantic 10 Championship Central by clicking here.
Swimming news courtesy of St. Bonaventure Swimming & Diving.