Swimming & Diving Ready to Open Season at Colgate on Oct. 14

There is plenty of reason to be confident if you are Lou Walker, the Syracuse University head swimming and diving coach.

“There are two things that give us an optimistic outlook - an outstanding senior class and increased numbers,” Walker said. “We now have some depth.”

Luk Boral, a two-time BIG EAST champion, headlines the list of men’s swimmers after competing at the past two NCAA Championships. He will be surrounded by a number of men that earned points at last year’s BIG EAST Championship. The women return a solid group of performers that placed at the conference meet. In addition, the new look of the BIG EAST Conference in 2005-06 will offer an exciting challenge for this year’s group of swimmers and divers.

THE MEN

Boral, a junior, returns after competing in the 100 breaststroke and the 200 breaststroke at the 2005 NCAA Championship. He also qualified for the national meet as a freshman. He owns the BIG EAST Conference record in the 200 breaststroke. Last season, he helped SU’s 800 freestyle relay team to a silver medal at the conference championship, setting a school record with a time of 6:34.79.

“The goal for Luk this year will be trying to get to the finals of NCAA’s,” Walker said.

Rob Persico returns as a senior who served as captain last season. He had an outstanding showing at last year’s BIG EAST Championship with a third-place finish in the 200 backstroke (1:48.52), a fourth-place finish in the 500 freestyle (4:31.20), a fifth-place finish in the 400 individual medley (3:57.65) and a fourth-place finish in the 400 medley relay (3:20.28). He was also a member of the 800 freestyle relay team that earned second place with a university-record time.

Junior Wes Matson returns to swim butterfly and freestyle after a terrific sophomore season in which he won the team’s Coaches Award. He was a member of the 800 freestyle relay team that finished second at the BIG EAST Championship. He placed fifth in the 200 freestyle with a personal-best time of 1:40.09 and tacked on more points for the Orange in the 200 butterfly with a top-16 finish and a time of 1:53.45.

“We have guys who did exceptional at last year’s BIG EAST meet,” Walker said. “Rob Persico and Wes Matson instantly come to mind. Pat Mugavin is solid in distance freestyle.”

Mugavin is a senior who competes in the distance events. He will be looking to improve on his ninth-place finishes in both the 500 freestyle and the 1,650 freestyle at this year’s BIG EAST Championship.

Ryan Caponera is another senior looking to help add experience to the team this year. He will swim freestyle for the Orange. Caponera helped the team to a fifth-place finish in the 200 medley relay at last year’s BIG EAST Championship meet.

Another reason to be encouraged this season is the return of Bobby Schelling who missed most of the season last year with a knee injury. He will return for his senior season to swim backstroke and freestyle for the Orange.

Walker likes this strong nucleus of returners leading a talented group of newcomers. Transfer Gustavo Araujo, a senior, arrived at Syracuse University after the swimming program was dropped at his previous school, the University of Louisiana-Monroe. He is versatile and can swim the 200 butterfly, the 400 individual medley and some distance.

“It’s a strong contingent,” Walker said. “Our numbers are up and they are a hard-working group. We should see some strong results.”

THE WOMEN

“On the women’s side, we have a couple of university record-holders in Randi Beaulieu, Lisa Wittich and Vanessa Dueñas, who was a BIG EAST finalist and a consistent performer last season. Katie Maaske finished second in the breaststroke at the BIG EAST Conference meet.”

Beaulieu is a junior who owns the school record in the 100 backstroke (56.63) and the 200 freestyle relay. She had a solid BIG EAST Championship meet last year, scoring points for the Orange in the 50 freestyle (14^th – 24.01) and helping the 200 medley relay team to a sixth-place finish (1:47.02). She also swam with the 200 freestyle relay, the 400 medley relay and the 400 freestyle relay.

Wittich returns for her senior season after serving as a captain last year. She owns four university records, all set in 2003 and 2004, including the 500 freestyle record (4:51.35), the 1,000 freestyle record (10:10.07), the 1,650 freestyle record (16:51.22) and the 800 freestyle relay record (7:29.61). Wittich competed in five events at last year’s BIG EAST Championship. She scored points for the Orange in the 500 freestyle (11^th place – 4:57.80), the 200 freestyle (15^th place – 1:53.91) and the 1,650 freestyle (10^th place – 17:14.19).

Maaske was selected as the team’s MVP and Rookie of the Year a season ago. She looks to improve upon a stellar freshman season that saw her capture second place in the 200 breaststroke (2:18.99) at the BIG EAST Championship, after placing sixth in the morning prelims. She also medaled in the 100 breaststroke, earning bronze with a time of 1:04.36. Early in the season, Maaske set a Ted Webster pool record in the 100 breaststroke, clocking a time of 1:05.60.

Senior Melissa Clune is back to swim butterfly for the Orange this year. She is yet another veteran who scored points at the BIG EAST Championship last year, finishing seventh in the 100 butterfly with a personal-best time of 56.78 and finishing top 16 in the 100 freestyle. She also contributed in the 200 medley relay, the 200 freestyle relay and the 400 medley relay.

Sophomore Vanessa Dueñas returns to swim butterfly and individual medley after a stellar sophomore campaign. She finished fifth in the 200 butterfly at the BIG EAST Championship last year with a career-best time of 2:03.50. She was eighth in the 200 individual medley (2:05.92) and added points in the 400 individual medley where she placed 12^th with a time of 4:28.49.

Erin Homewood is a sophomore that returns with experienced credentials. She will compete in freestyle and the individual medley events this season for the Orange. Homewood competed in four events at last year’s BIG EAST Championship. Her greatest contribution came in the 500 freestyle where she posted a top-16 finish. In the 1,650 freestyle, Homewood was 12^th with a time of 17:18.65. She also competed in the 400 individual medley and the 800 freestyle relay. She set a personal-best time of 4:55.72 in the 500 freestyle earlier in the season at the Nike Cup.

Anette Melissa Hoye is back for her second season with the Orange after transferring in as a sophomore from St. John’s University. Hoye’s specialty is the breaststroke. She will be looking to score points for the Orange in the 100 and 200 breaststroke events at this year’s conference championship meet.

“With the women, we didn’t lose any significant point scorers from last year and we have some outstanding kids,” Walker said.

THE DIVERS

Coach Jeff Keck is back to guide the divers in 2005-06 after a one-year hiatus. He served as diving coach at Syracuse from 1982-2004, had planned to retire, but was lured back by some things he found he missed, mostly the interaction with the student-athletes and coaching them in the technique and mental preparation of diving.

All five divers from last year’s team return. The women welcome back sophomore Tory McKenna, senior Kelly Wright and junior Shira Brown. The men will be led by junior Jeremy Thornton and sophomore Patrick White.

“Tory is working on her list of dives, upgrading them and doing very well,” Keck said. “She has nice difficulty now. That will make her competitive with kids in the east. Kelly continues to learn and improve, while Shira is working her way back from an injury that kept her from competing last season.”

Keck is excited about the continued development of Thornton and White.

“Jeremy has a big-time list,” Keck said. “He has real nice dives off the three-meter. We are working on how to twist.”

“Pat is our best one-meter diver. He has great entries and is super clean. I think he has tremendous potential.”

THE SCHEDULE

This year’s schedule includes duals meets at Colgate, Connecticut and Seton Hall; and home meets versus Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Villanova. The Orange will be at the Nike Cup at the University of North Carolina in November. The BIG EAST Championship is in February at the Nassau County Aquatics Center in Uniondale, New York.

“We’ll be gearing up early for the Nike Cup,” Walker said. “It should be interesting with the addition of Louisville and Cincinnati at the conference championship meet. It will be a different look at the BIG EAST’s this year.”

“The bottom line is that we’re looking to be better than we were a year ago,” Walker continued. “We have quality kids and we didn’t lose a lot of points from last year’s team.”

Syracuse University Athletics

Swimming & Diving Ready to Open Season at Colgate on Oct. 14

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