The swimming and diving program is in the deep end and ready to swim to new heights as the season is now underway. The 2023-24 campaign kicked off last Saturday as Hamline hosted a relay invite at Bush Center.
This season will be year two under new coach Alex Card. In his first year, Card saw the first national championship qualifier in 16 years thanks to now Hamline alum Courtney Broyles.
“I knew her freshman year that she [Broyles] was capable of it,” assistant coach Casey Jones said. “Last season, she believed it and that was just an amazing experience all the way around.
Earlier this month the program hosted an alumni pre-season meet. The event took place the first Saturday of October and brought back familiar faces at Bush Pool.
“It’s a good opportunity for the kids to have a meet environment at a lower stakes event,” Jones said.
Jones is entering her seventh season with the program after swimming at the collegiate level for St. Thomas.
The alumni meet was great prep for the start of the regular season which was also hosted at Bush Pool featuring three other MIAC (Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) opponents.
Both the men’s and women’s programs finished third in their respective meets although the women’s program notched 18 more points total.
Hamline emerged victorious in two events over the weekend, both in women’s diving, despite losing Broyles over the summer.
Britney Krumrei won the one and three meter dives for the Pipers, a big performance from the first-year diver in her debut.
One of the keys to success is coming from a place you may not expect: from out of the water in dryland training.
“Over the summer we began more exercises on land,” junior Ava Graham said. “We do weight and resistance training and also exercises on the [pool] deck.”
The intense dryland training is not for the weak, along with the regular practices in the water that the athletes endure nearly every day of the week.
“We’re in the pool six days a week and lifting three to four times a week,” Sophomore Evan Poeschel said.
The programs each have 10 regular season meets on schedule, all except for one will be against fellow MIAC opponents. On Jan. 2, both teams will head out to Thousand Oaks, CA, to compete at the Cal Luthern Chris Knorr invite.
With a new head coach at the helm and a young roster featuring just one senior, the program will need to rely on the Pipers’ young guns for a strong season.