Swimming wins at William Jewell
The University of Indianapolis men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams started off their season with two consecutive wins, giving the Greyhounds a perfect record. With this success, according to Head Swimming and Diving Coach Gary Kinkead, the teams will be using their next meet as a rest meet.
“They have known all season that we’re going to rest for [this next meet],” Kinkead said. “I think, mentally, they’re going to be prepared to swim very, very well at that competition.”
With the rest week on the horizon, Kinkead said he is proud of the work his teams have been doing. According to Kinkead, the teams’ wins at William Jewell College and Ashland University have been important for the season.
“The Ashland win was especially good because they were a GLIAC [Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference] conference [opponent], and we’re no longer in that conference,” Kinkead said. “It’s always nice to compete against a team like Ashland because they are very good. They’ve beat us last year at nationals, [so] being able to have a win over them in both men and women three weeks ago was really good.”
The Greyhounds claimed victories in both men’s and women’s, 148-57 and 146-58, respectively, over William Jewell Nov. 9. The women’s team took nine out of 11 events, while the men’s team won 10 out of 11 events.
During the Nov. 2 competition against Ashland, the men won 155-78, while the women won 136-87. Both teams won nine of 13 events.
Junior Hayley Good won two events for the Greyhounds against Ashland. She finished with a time of 25.03 in the 50-yard freestyle and 54.68 in the 100-yard freestyle. Good felt positive about her performance against the Eagles.
“I feel like it’s [the season is] going really well. I feel like this year the team is really strong, [and] we’ve had a strong start,” Good said. “Our win over Ashland was a big win for us … definitely one of the strongest starts to the season that I’ve had since I’ve been here.”
Both Kinkead and Good attribute the team’s success to good attitudes and strength training. Kinkead has bumped up dry land exercises from two to three days a week. According to Kinkead, dry land exercises help upgrade the swimming program.
“It’s [the increase in dry land exercises] not really a change. It’s an upgrade of the program. You try to build your program in steps, and if we had tried to do this last year, I think it might have been a little overwhelming for some of the people. I think as we get better, we have to continue to do the small things better,” Kinkead said.
Kinkead also said that getting better can sometimes come with more work to live up to the standards that have been set.
“It’s really a curse to get better, because as you get better, you have to do more things better. You have to do the little things better. You have to develop better habits,” Kinkead said. “And I think those are the things, the little changes that we’re doing this year, that are making the difference in the attitude and as well as the motivation as well as the performance of the swimmers.”
Kinkead also said that he has seen an increase in the positive mental attitude of his student-athletes. He attributes this to the cohesiveness of the incoming freshmen. Good also has noticed the positive impact the freshmen have on the teams.
“We have a great group of freshmen that have bonded really well with the older swimmers, which is awesome, because I know in the past the freshmen haven’t really bonded as well,” Good said. “So I think this year they’ve just really joined in. We’ve become stronger … I definitely think because we’re a better unit. We’re swimming better together as well.”
The Greyhounds will compete next at the Woehnker Invitational Nov. 22-23 at Wabash College. The Invitational will begin at 7 p.m. on the first day and at 10 a.m. on the second.
