With the first meet of the season approaching, excitement and camaraderie is resonating from coaches and athletes alike, but the Sun Devils' swim team is not allowing nerves get the best of it.
Friday marks the last two weeks of the preseason practices before the swim and dive teams will fly out to the University of Minnesota for their first dual meet of the season.
This is the first season the Sun Devils have ever competed this early, but they are looking forward to the challenge, coach Dorsey Tierney-Walker said.
“We’ll compete for victory,” Tierney-Walker said, “but it’s equally important to race at a high level and learn how we want to do our races.”
Dual meets, like ASU's opener, are between the home school and one challenger, as opposed to larger competitions, which occur later in the season and have many schools competing. Dual meets will give the team a chance to not only compete at a high level, but also see their swimmers in competition for the first time.
Learning is crucial for the athletes to improve their abilities, but after months without racing and following the difficult preseason training, the restless excitement of competition is building up in veterans and underclassmen like sophomore Thibaut Capitaine.
Capitaine said this has been his best start of the season yet.
“I’m really excited and can’t wait to compete,” Capitaine said. “You can feel it when the meet is getting closer. Everyone can feel it.”
The Sun Devils youthful team and positive spirits is what brings so much electricity to the pool, but even as the veterans begin to feel the competitive itch sneaking in, veterans like junior Melanie Busch know the importance of the first meet.
“We’re still getting back into the swing of things,” Busch said. “We are really working for the end of the season.”
Despite being thin on the girls side because athletes like Tristin Baxter and Anna Olasz are heading to Hong Kong to compete in an open water competition, Tierney-Walker knows how crucial the first meet is for sculpting his team for NCAA championships later in the season.
“It’s exciting for us to see a Big Ten team,” Tierney-Walker said, “(but) it’s vitally important to use this opportunity to evaluate the team for this and second semester.”
The official roster of athletes competing in Minnesota has yet to be determined, as have the relay teams that will be racing together, but the team’s unwavering support of every one of its athletes is what they believe separates them from any other team.
It is not rare for the Sun Devils to get breakfast after practice or meet outside of the pool.
“Everyone’s part of the team,” Capitaine said. “It takes us to another level and makes us better.”
The Sun Devils first meet against Minnesota will take place Saturday, Oct. 4.
Reach the reporter at nkwit@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @NolanKwit
