While many San Diegans spent their summer swim time having fun, the 34 women who make up San Diego State’s swim and dive team have been hard at work, perfecting their skills.
The swim and dive team hope to start this season strong after ending on a high note last season. At the end of last season, the team finished second at the Mountain West Championships and sent six swimmers to the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championship.
SDSU’s swim team completed last year with its best finish and highest point total ever for the Aztecs at the national meet; coming in at 27th place at the NCAA Championships. With 28 points, the Aztecs finished this tournament with the highest score out of all the Mountain West teams. The team hopes to be able to continue on with that momentum and make this year even better.
Last season, SDSU had 12 members of the swimming and diving team named to the 2014 All-Mountain West team.
Five of the six swimmers — freshman Anika Apostalon; seniors Chelsea Bailey and Maddy Dalcamo; and juniors Natilee Ruiz and Whitney Weisz — were sent to the NCAA Tournament last year are going to be staying on the team this season.
Bailey, Delcamo, Ruiz and Weisz together set the school’s second-fastest time for the 400-meter freestyle relay at the NCAA competition.
Bailey, who set the school record in the 100-meter freestyle, said that although the team hasn’t had any meets this year, this season looks strong.
“This season is going to be an incredible one,” Bailey said. “We have a lot of new swimmers and divers that are really going to make an impact on the team. It’s definitely going to be the biggest and best group of girls we’ve had in the history of SDSU.”
The Aztec’s have a young team this year with 11 freshmen. Juniors and seniors make up about two-thirds of the team this season.
Bailey said the goal for this year is to have as many girls as possible qualify for NCAAs and to take back the Championship Title they held in conference during the 2011 and 2013 seasons.
The Aztecs enlisted the help of a new face to ensure they reach their goals. In August, head coach Mike Shrader announced the hiring of Stephen Allnutt as the program’s assistant coach. Allnutt had previously been an assistant coach at the University of Hawaii after graduating in 2011. During his time at Hawaii, he helped the Warriors win their first Conference-USA Invitational Championship title.
The first home meet for the Aztecs will be at 2 p.m. on Oct. 24 at the Aztec Aquaplex against Hawaii.
