Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Women's Swimming & Diving Looks To Regain MVC Title
09/24/2003 | 12:00:00 | Swimming & Diving
Sept. 24, 2003
By Lou Antoine
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - While many people believe that losing is a bad thing, SIU women's swimming and diving head coach Jeff Goelz disagrees with that sentiment heading into the 2003-04 season. The Salukis have won seven of the first nine MVC championships, including five straight until last spring, when for the first time in his previous three years as head coach, Goelz didn't win the MVC Championship. Despite the setback, Goelz believes last year's second place finish may have been a good thing for his current team, heading into his fourth season as head coach.
"You always look for the silver lining in a loss and I think that some of the kids are more focused now because they've been on the losing end at the MVC Meet for the first time and they don't like it. They liked it when they were winning so it adds some fire to get going this year. There's a good group of upperclassmen and a good group of young kids so we're excited about the 2003-04 season," said Goelz.
To begin the process of regaining the title Goelz and his staff began with a renewed recruiting effort to reload the SIU women's swimming team.
"We knew last year would be a rebuilding year, we just didn't know how big of a rebuilding year it would be. You hope that everyone steps up and performs as they're capable of and some do and some don't. We focused on some specific areas (diving & breaststroke) for this year. Getting Chunhua "Joy" Zhao as the new diving coach is huge, because that's an area we felt we could really improve in, and I think we're going to improve there," stated Goelz.
"Sitting with the captains and upperclassmen and explaining to them that if they want to win they have to be good leaders, show up on time and deal with the underclassmen if they're doing something they shouldn't be doing and point them in the right direction. We've got some great upperclassmen for leadership."
Goelz, the former Saluki all-american swimmer, will rely on five seniors this season after having just one senior last season. Brigitta Olson (Calgary, Alberta, Canada), Karina Belache (Rio De Janiero, Brazil), Kyria Kershner (Tucson, Ariz.), Rachel Giordano (Springfield, Ill.) and Laura Hinton (St. Catherines, Canada) represent the senior class, but Goelz expects to have leadership in every area.
"Across the board we have somebody in every stroke that ought to be a leader and pushing other people but we also have five seniors as well as some other upperclassmen," Goelz added.
In the pool, Goelz will rely on returners such as juniors Ashley MacCurdy (Carrollton, Texas), the MVC 400 IM champion and runner-up in the 1650 free; Melinda Page (Mt. Barker, Australia), who finished fifth in the 200 IM and the 200 free; Andrea Johnson (Elburn, Ill.) and Andri Hadjiantoniou (Larnaca, Cyprus), who finished fourth in the 100 back; sophomores Elizabeth McGowan (Ft. Worth, Texas), the MVC 500 free champion and fourth place finisher in the 1650 free and Briley Bergen, third in the 1650 free and fourth in the 500 free and seniors Olson, the runner-up in the 200 fly and 400 IM and Belache, who finished fourth in the 100 fly and fifth in the 200 fly.
In addition to the strong core of veterans, Goelz added 12 freshmen and a junior college national champion diver to the mix ... a group his staff is very excited about and expects to have an immediate impact.
"This group of newcomers should give us a huge boost. They're going to add a lot of enthusiasm. Our kids that have been here a couple years will tell you that this is our most enthusiastic class we've had and last year was a pretty enthusiastic class as well, as far as a core group of girls that were very focused and driven," an excited Goelz stated. "This group is very focused, driven and talented, which is an exciting mix and they all get along pretty well, which is huge among 30-plus athletes. They take care of their business in the pool and that's exciting. The future looks bright when you look at the freshman and sophomore class. Each class I recruit, we seem to get a little deeper each year among the younger kids."
With the new recruits SIU looks solid in all the strokes and has depth all over the roster for the 2003-04 season. The relays are expected to be stronger then last season with the added depth. While Goelz expects the depth to make a difference, he admits SIU's strength is still in the distance races.
"We're always good in the longer strokes like the 200 breast, 200 fly, 200 back, 400IM, 500 free and the mile. If there's one area that's a concern it would be the sprints, but the people are there to be successful in those events. We just need them to step it up a little bit and swim to their capabilities. Last year we had a couple kids at the MVC Meet that weren't sharp and that's probably my responsibility to taper them better."
The strength of SIU looks to be the distance events, butterfly and IM. In the distance free events (200, 500, 1650 free) SIU returns McGowan, MacCurdy and Bergen, while big things are expected from Page, who had a strong first semester. In the butterfly (100 & 200) Olson, Belache, Hadjiantoniou and junior Rachel Green (Energy, Ill.) all return and will be helped by freshmen Rachel Winius (Brookfield, Wisc.) and Gabriela Flores (Queretaro, Mexico). The individual medley (200 & 400) events will be covered by returners Olson, Hadjiantoniou, MacCurdy and the addition of Nora Bunford (Budapest, Hungary) and Winius.
The Salukis have made an effort to strengthen the sprints, backstroke, breaststroke and diving this season. In the sprints (50 & 100 free) returners Green, sophomore Kelsey Kinsella (Lexington, Ill.) and junior Sarah Lenz (Cary, Ill.) will lead the way. The backstroke is kind of a question mark with freshman Liz Navitsky (Mechanicsburg, Penn.), who will get help from MacCurdy, Olson, Hadjiantoniou and Page, who is a strong backstroker.
The biggest weakness last season was the breaststroke, which was shored up with four freshmen breaststrokers including Bunford, Michaela Sceli (LaSalle, Ontario, Canada), Alison Atherton (Fishers, Ind.) and Kim Grossnickle (Fort Dodge, Iowa), who will be added to Page and sophomore Mary Millard, making the weakness a possible strength. The diving core of Johnson, Hinton and sophomore Melissa Hanson was boosted with the addition of junior Nadine Shawah, the 2003 NJCAA national champion last year at Indian River Community College, and Nikki Duhigg, who is a walk-on.
"Five divers is awesome for us. They're very focused and working very hard and our new diving coach is working them very hard. I think diving will be a strength this year, that's our plan and what I expect," said Goelz.
While Goelz is extremely excited about the improvements, particularly in diving, the addition of Zhao as the new diving coach has him looking to raise the level of the program as a whole.
"We're very fortunate to be able to attract someone like Chunhua "Joy" Zhao to SIU as our diving coach. Now that she's here the bar is raised for the program, and you need certain people in place. She's one of the people that will help us reach that level. I think she'll really make a big difference with our divers and in our conference as far as the level of skill," said an excited Goelz.
"She's excited to be here and she's going to do everything she can to make the divers better because that's part of the swimming and diving team, and we're going to do everything we can to help her help those divers get better. She has international diving and coaching experience for China. She dove with the Chinese National team and is very detailed, structured and regimented in her training system. She works on all the little things that people forget about and a bunch of little things add up to big things. She's very good at making sure everything is done properly."
With a new coach and added depth, Goelz put together a very challenging schedule for the Salukis in the 2003-04 season.
"If you look at our schedule, you'll see meets with Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa State, Northwestern, Ohio State Indiana and Western Kentucky. We face a lot of Big Ten and Big 12 teams. There's not a meet in there that's a patsy. Everyone's going to have to step up and race and that's exciting. I don't think there's many folks that have a schedule as hard as this one. Every meet we go to will be a challenge. We can beat some big schools if things go right and we get excited, or we could lose to some schools that we shouldn't lose to if we slack off this season," Goelz stated.
In the end, despite the tough schedule and quest to regain an MVC title, Goelz still has one primary goal for his team and some additional secondary goals.
"Winning the MVC is a goal but that's not the biggest goal. The biggest goal is always academics and keeping the kids at that 3.46 GPA level, which placed us fourth in the nation as a team academically last semester. That's the highest we've ever been, which is huge and that's what we're really here for," added Goelz.
"I'd also like to get some kids back to the NCAA level. We have the potential and some people with that talent and with the right environment, leadership and encouragement, we could have some people do some really big things in 2003-04."
Look for the Salukis to regain the MVC title in 2004 and win their eighth title in ten years of MVC competition.
SIU opens the season with a dual meet against Kansas on Friday, Sept. 26. followed by an Open Water Swim versus Kansas on Saturday, Sept. 27. in Lawrence, Kansas.
