The CSU East Bay Women’s Swim Team is taking four swimmers to the 2013 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships this week in Birmingham, Ala.
Following a program – best second – place finish at the 2013 Pacific Coast Swim Conference Championships only a week ago, CSUEB will have the first Pioneers to compete in the NCAA division II national championship competition since 1992.
The Pioneers substantially improved three places in the standings at the PCSC Championships since 2012 while breaking 15 school records and returning with several NCAA B cuts and four NCAA qualifying cuts, the NCAA announced last Wednesday.
Each swimmer with a qualifying cut will be allowed to swim any additional B cut at the meet as well.
Head coach Ben Loorz will be on his first trip to the NCAA Division II championships in just his third year on the coaching staff at East Bay along with swimmers Jenel Lopez, Erica Crain, Caitlin DeNise and Brittany Rojo. The four are qualified together to swim the 200 free relay with a time of 1:34.28.
“We are very proud to be able to represent East Bay at the national level,” Loorz said. “To be able to execute the way we knew we could and get not only two individuals but a whole relay invited is pretty exciting.”
Senior and team Captain Jenel Lopez qualified to swim the 200 free and is currently seeded 12th place at the National Championships. She will also be swimming the 100 and 200 free where she is seeded 20th and 21st.
“It’s a great honor for our team to be invited to the championships this year, it shows how hard we have worked this season,” she said.
Fellow senior and former water polo player for East Bay of two years Erica Crain, will be swimming an additional B cut in the 50 freestyle.
Junior Caitlin DeNise qualified in the 100 fly and is currently seeded at 15th place. She will also be swimming B cuts in the 50 and 100 free.
Britney Rojo, junior and newcomer to the team, will swim B cuts in the 100 fly and 50 free.
“It feels pretty cool to say I’m going to nationals since I’ve just joined the team,” said Rojo. “I’ve been here for about seven weeks now so it’s a great accomplishment to be moving on so fast.”
The four swimmers will enter the NCAA Division II national meet after only a 16 day turnaround from their PCSC Conference championships.
“When you come off of such a big meet like Conference, it takes the body really a full week to be able to recover,” Loorz said.
The team devoted their concentration to recovery and catching up on school work following the Conference meet, and last week began to include speed work to prepare for Nationals.
“Our biggest goal is to approach this competition without fear, intimidation, or worry, and this team has a great reputation of proving to be good at that.” Loorz said in an interview with The Pioneer. “Every time we’ve ever been close to somebody at a dual meet we’ve just crushed them. I expect us to be able to take that sort of attitude of dominance to the national scene.”
Opening ceremonies for NCAA Division II Nationals will begin on Tuesday March 5th. The competition will follow on Wednesday and continue through Saturday. The meet will operate as a full four day format consisting of a prelim session in the morning and a final session in the afternoon.
“It has been a great year, which makes it kind of tough to continue because the natural tendency when you do great is to sit back and relax, but that’s not what we’re about,” Loorz said.
NCAA Division II Nationals swimming results can be viewed at http://www.gulfswimming.org/tmp2/. East Bay Women’s Swimming can be watched live at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time for prelims and at 3:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time for finals at http://www.ncaa.com/liveschedule/2013/03/06.
