The Online Reflector

University of Indianapolis swimming team members junior Maura Donahue and freshman Bruno Barbosa earned the National Swimmer of the Week award during the last week of November.

The award is based on a swimmer’s performance in meets during that week. Swimmers are nominated by a panel on nationalswimming.com. This was Donahue’s second time to be honored as the Swimmer of the Week and Barbosa’s first. Donahue sees this award as an honor, but is always looking forward in the season.

“It’s an honor, but at the same time, we’re only halfway through the season. A lot can happen,” she said.

Donahue was seven seconds away from making an “A” cut standard at the Patrick Woehnker Invitational.

Donahue said she is always looking to improve and believes that she can push through to make the “A” cut. Her  improvements since last season have helped her gain the award again.

“I just feel like generally I’ve become a stronger swimmer.  Having [Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach] Adam [Thackery] as a weight coach, and just having a steady weight coach,  has also helped a lot with strength training,”  Donahue said. “It’s helped me slim down a little bit and get me a little bit more lean, which helps me with my stroke. So just working in general with little technique stuff has been a big change from last year to this year.”

Barbosa also has had to overcome obstacles to receive this award.

“[I’ve had to improve] my techniques, my power and my mental side,” he said.

Head Coach Gary Kinkead has seen many improvements in both swimmers

“We’ve only had Bruno[Barbosa]  for a year,” Kinkead said. “For him, it was changing in attitude. He has had to understand the team concept attitude rather than the individual concept attitude, and I think he’s starting to come around to that.”

Barbosa hopes to steadily improve so that he can qualify for the national championship for DII again.

“[I want to improve] everything, because everything is connected,” Barbosa said. “If I improve my technique, I’m going to improve my time.”

Some of the improvements can be attributed to the changes in the training methods used by the coaching staff. DII athletes are only allowed to train 20 hours a week. Kinkead has increased dry land workouts, like weight training.

“That [strength training] has made them better athletes out of the water, which makes them better athletes in the water. I think that’s the evolution that Maura [Donahue] has made as a competitive swimmer and that Bruno [Barbosa] is starting to make as a competitive swimmer,” Kinkead said.

Donahue and Barbosa both placed high in the Calvin Winter Invitational.  Donahue came away winning five of her events, and Barbosa placed second in his events.

The team has its next meet away on Jan. 14 at Hillsdale College, in Hillsdale, Mich.  Because Hillsdale has a women’s-only swim team, the men will compete at Hillsdale against Wabash College. Kinkead said that he is looking forward to the improvements at the end of the year.

“The National Swimmer of the Week award is a nice honor, but it’s not the end of the means. The end of the means is what we do at the national championships,” Kinkead said. “It’s a nice award, and it’s a nice honor to be recognized by your peers or by the coaches of the country.”