Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Swimming & Diving opens 2006-07 season at Evansville
09/29/2006 | 12:00:00 | Swimming & Diving
Sept. 29, 2006
By Matt Crouch
www.SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois University swimming and diving team kicks off its 2006-07 season Saturday, Sept. 30 with a dual meet against conference rival Evansville.
While SIU's women's swimming and diving team remains in the Missouri Valley Conference, the opening of the 2006-07 season begins the men's membership in the Sun Belt Conference. The men's teams from Evansville and Missouri State also begin competition in the Sun Belt this season.
In preparation of the season-opening meet, the Salukis have been training since Sept. 1. Head coach Rick Walker has been very pleased with the progress that he has seen over the four weeks since then.
"Training has been going great. It is one of those things where you love to see this come because it is time to compete, but you hate to see this come because are training so well and I don't want to break that up," said Walker.
"But, training has been going very well. In fact, the best that it has gone in preseason that I can remember in a long time."
The men's team returns 12 letterwinners from last year's squad while adding four newcomers to the team. The women's team returns 14 letterwinners with 11 newcomers.
Among the returning letterwinners are MVC Swimming of the Year Julie Ju and MVC Invitational Swimmer of the Meet Antonio Santoro. Also returning is MVC Diver of the Year Cristina Curtuneanu.
With all of the returning lettermen, 15 newcomers make for an interesting mixture of experience and youth.
"It is a great freshman class. They have a good attitude, they're positive and hard-working, which is very refreshing. It is something that I think is going to bode well, not only for this class, but for the years to come," said Walker.
"One of the hardest things to do when turning things around is bad attitudes and we're definitely well on our way of setting a tone for what our future championship teams are going to have."
SIU opened its 2005-06 campaign against Evansville, dominating the Purple Aces in the dual meet.
The men's team won 189-44 while the women won 178-62.
With all of the preseason training and the memory of last season's performance, Walker hopes that his teams are able to focus and work hard through the meet.
"I'm hoping to see that the team responds well to being somewhat fatigued. They are tired and we are working hard, but swimming isn't based on its dual meet record, it is base on the end of the year championship," said Walker.
"That is where you qualify to get to the NCAAs and ultimately where you win your championships. The focus needs to be on your competition, we can't take Evansville lightly. At the same time, we have to take ourselves seriously enough to take every opportunity and make the most of it."
Action in the dual meet is set to begin at 11:30 a.m., Saturday at Evansville's Carson Center.
