The Online Reflector

By Caitlin Mannan | Staff Writer

The men’s and women’s swimming teams competed in the NCAA Division II Winter Festival in Houston, Tex., March 11-15. After claiming several top honors and places in their events, they are already looking ahead to next year.

The 15 Greyhounds from the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams received All-American honors or mentions in their events at nationals.

To receive an All-American honor, an individual must place first through eighth in their event. For an All-American mention, an individual must place ninth through sixteenth.

“If you’re in the top sixteen in the country in any of your events, you’re obviously one of the best in the country,” said head coach Gary Kinkead. “It’s very significant, and it’s a great honor.”

Along with performing at their personal best during this spring break competition and receiving top honors, the team was also forced to re-configure their team dynamic.

“We didn’t have everyone there at nationals. There were some people that were dismissed from the team earlier in the year that would have gone to nationals,” Kinkead said. “What was good about them not being there is that the other people that did go rallied around and did better, I think, simply because they were not depending on those people.”

Junior Erica Smith said the team members who swam in place of the removed individuals really stepped up and surprised the team.

“I think they surprised themselves more with how they swam on the relays to try to help replace the guys that we lost,” Smith said.

Despite the turbulence that was caused by the dismissal of those key team members earlier in the year, the men’s and women’s teams came together for an impressive showing at nationals, demonstrating resilience and cohesiveness.

Junior Manuel Stiem earned three second-place finishes during the nationals.

Stiem took second place against Wayne State University in the 100-yard butterfly and second place against the University of Tampa in the 200-yard individual medley.
He went on to claim second against Tampa again in the 100-yard breaststroke. Stiem clenched three All-American finishes to round out the week and said that he was pleased that all of his races became his personal best times.

Several records were broken during nationals, including sophomore Alican Alacli’s own personal record 15.33.66  time in the 1,650-meter freestyle for the men’s team.
Senior Isabela Tafur earned two All-American honors during the week, giving her 11 All-American honors total. Tafur broke her own record in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 50.07. The old mark was 50.30.

Smith claimed three All-American honors for UIndy during nationals.

Freshman Ozlem Taskin claimed two more All-American finishes. At the end of the week, both teams earned a combined total of 13 All-American honors, according to the UIndy Athletics Web site (athletics.uindy.edu) with several more All-American mentions to finish out the week.

The men’s team finished 15th out of 28 with an overall score of 94.5 points.

The women competed against 33 teams for an 11th place finish with 137 points overall, according to the NCAA Web site (NCAA.com).
Kinkead said he is expecting the momentum from this year to launch the team members into next year’s season.

“Some of them, even the ones that went to nationals, are already starting back now with running, exercising and dry land work,” Kinkead said. “I think they’re excited about what we did, what we accomplished and where we’re going.”