Tulane Preparing for North Texas Relays, TCU Meets

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, September 25. THE Tulane University swimming and diving team will open the 2014-15 season with a pair of contests over the weekend as the Green Wave will participate in the North Texas Relays on Friday in Southlake, Texas, before heading to Fort Worth to square off against TCU on Saturday. Those meets are slated to start at 6 p.m. and 10 a.m., respectively.

The Green Wave are in their second season under the direction of head coach Katie Robinson, who helped lead the team to a sixth-place finish in last year’s Conference USA Championship with 463 points – the most by the program since taking home the league crown in 2005 – while her student-athletes posted 35 season-best times, 22 career-best marks and four school records during the season-ending meet. Tulane returns 17-of-21 letterwinners from that team and add the talents of five freshmen with an eye on taking the next step as a program during the upcoming campaign.

“We’ve been doing a lot of conditioning and trying to get the team ready for these first two competitions of the year, and it’s been really exciting,” Robinson said. “They came in a lot more fit and a lot more in shape than they have in years past, and it was good to see that. We jumped into the pool with both feet and started the year off very strongly. We’re looking forward to seeing some of the results from this weekend to show us what we’ve been working so hard on in practice these last few weeks.”

Headlining the list of returning veterans are swimmers Miah Schachter and Ellie Sills, as well as diver Lauren Arnold. Schachter posted three NCAA B-Cut standard marks as a sophomore and was invited to participate in the 2014 Phillips 66 National Championship over the summer, while Sills was tabbed C-USA Freshman of the Year last season. Arnold, meanwhile, became the first Tulane diver to participate in the postseason as she earned a spot in the NCAA Zone Diving Meet as a sophomore.

Tulane also welcomes back the talents of rising seniors Molly Jubas, Morgan Evans, Vanessa Loewen, Amy Needham, Claire Schelske and Laura Turpen, rising juniors Elizabeth Cook, Holly Grender, Maren Kjell, Roni Meyer and Rachel Schneider and rising sophomores Jonna Frantz, Joy Jason and Ali Talwar. Joining the team as true freshman this season are Alex Brindisi, Alex Lakota, Emma Lincoln, Tirol Palmer and Kaitlin Simpson.

“They’re all doing a really good job,” Robinson said of her team’s preseason preparation. “Our seniors are being great leaders for the team, and we look forward to their leadership in different ways than we did in the past. Our freshmen are doing a great job, too. They’re filling roles that needed to be filled from last year. Overall, our team is looking very strong. We’re still a young team in that we’re going to continue to get better. We’re still a little green on the edges sometimes, but the potential is there which is great.”

Friday’s North Texas Relays is a unique event which features 10 non-traditional relays of various amounts of swimmers, distances and strokes. The meet opens with the 3×100 fly, 3×100 back, 3×100 breast and 4×200 relay followed by the 50-100-150-200 free ladder relay. From there, the teams will square off in the 4×100 medley, 4×40 free, 3×500 free and 4×100 IM before wrapping up with the 4×100 free. In the meet, Tulane will match skills with fellow American Athletic Conference foe SMU as well as host North Texas.

Saturday’s meet at TCU will be the standard meet format and marks the first time the Green Wave will square off against the Horned Frogs since the 2005 C-USA Championship when Tulane edged the current member of the Big 12, 245-235.5, to take home the only conference title in school history.

“We’re very excited about [the TCU] meet,” Robinson added. “It’s a good, very strong program that we wanted to have on our schedule this year and for years to come, too. I think that they’ll be a good team for us to swim against. They’ll really challenge us and push us in ways that we need to be pushed.”

Following this weekend’s meets, the Green Wave return to action on Friday, Oct. 3, when they play host to in-state rival LSU at 5 p.m. in the Reily Student Recreation Center. Tulane’s dual-meet against the Lady Tigers is the first of three home meets during the 2014-15 season, and admission to each of those contests is free.

COACH ROBINSON’S COMMENTS HEADING INTO THE SEASON-OPENING WEEKEND

On her team’s preparation for the first competitions of the 2014-15 season

“We’ve been doing a lot of conditioning and trying to get the team ready for these first two competitions of the year, and it’s been really exciting. They came in a lot more fit and a lot more in shape than they have in years past, and it was good to see that. We jumped into the pool with both feet and started the year off very strongly. We’re looking forward to seeing some of the results from this weekend to show us what we’ve been working so hard on in practice these last few weeks.”

On the format of the North Texas Relays

“It’s a relay meet, so every single event is a relay composed of either three or four people. The first relay is a 3×100 fly relay so three people will swim butterfly for a total of 300 yards. It’s a little bit strange and there are different things like a 4×100 IM relay where everybody on that relay swims a 100 IM. There are interesting and different relays. The name of the game is just to get your hand on the wall first, which is a fun way to look at it. It’s a good way to start the year. We’re worried too much about times but really working on racing and being competitive.”

On facing TCU in a dual meet on Saturday

“On Saturday, we swim against Texas Christian and we’re very excited about that meet. It’s a good, very strong program that we wanted to have on our schedule this year and for years to come, too. I think that they’ll be a good team for us to swim against. They’ll really challenge us and push us in ways that we need to be pushed.”

On her growth as a head coach entering her second season at the helm of the Tulane program

“I did a lot of self reflection after my first year as a head coach and I basically figured out where I needed to improve and where I need to continue to be strong. I like to do that. I think that’s helpful for my personal growth and in the profession as well. We made the appropriate changes we needed to make as a team and as a program, and I believe we’re moving forward on much better footing this year than last with just having the experience behind us.”

On her team’s progress from a year ago

“As a team, we’re continuing to be a close-knit team which I tried to helped foster. I really enjoy coaching them when they’re so close and they’re very supportive of each another. It’s already been a lot more rowdy pool deck this year with people cheering for each other through practices. That’s been really exciting and really fun. More so than last year, I’m leaving practice excited and pumped up about what we can accomplish.”

On who has shown the most improvement in practices from the 2013-14 campaign

“It’s hard for me to pinpoint one person because I think everyone has made some improvements from the end of last season to this year. Pointing out one person would undermine the importance of other people on the team. They’re all doing a really good job. Our seniors are being great leaders for the team, and we look forward to their leadership in different ways than we did in the past. Our freshmen are doing a great job, too. They’re filling roles that needed to be filled from last year. Overall, our team is looking very strong. We’re still a young team in that we’re going to continue to get better. We’re still a little green on the edges sometimes, but the potential is there which is great.”

On what she is looking for from her team this weekend

“It’s kind of like what I was talking about in the relay meet. We’re working on racing, competing and seeing that competitive drive show up in our races. We’ve also been doing some starts and turns work. I want to see some improvements on that. With our backstrokers, we’ve been doing a lot of underwater kicking, and I want to see that show up in our races. I really want to see them compete and hold their composure. We have a saying: ‘Act like a champion before you’re a champion.’ We want to see them walking, talking and doing all the right things so that when we further into our season and really conditioned and ready to go, it’ll show up there, too.”

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World. To reach our audience, contact us at newsmaster@swimmingworld.com.

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use