Heading into its fourth season, the University of West Florida’s swimming and diving team currently is 2-2 at mid-season, and ranked 14 in the nation in NCAA Division II.
First, the accolades from the previous season. The Argonauts won a second consecutive New South Intercollegiate Swim Conference championship in 2015-16, with three individual national championships. They were overseen by two-time NSISC Coach of the Year Andrew Hancock.
“We know it’s going to be a challenge to ‘three-peat,’ but the girls have been doing a great job in practice,” Hancock said at the UWF Winter Sports Media Day on Tuesday. “As we start to compete more in the next few weeks, hopefully we can transition some of that practice performance over to performance in meets and competitions.”
One of the highlights for UWF this season, which began in late September, was taking part in a meet with two Southeastern Conference schools – Alabama and Vanderbilt. There are no restrictions based on the size of schools to compete against each other in swimming and diving. Hancock says the meet was a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
“We had had Vanderbilt here a couple of years before that, and we had gotten to know the Alabama coaches just because we worked out in their pool last season passing through,” said Hancock.
Theresa Michalak won the national title in the hundred meter breaststroke, and diver Monica Amaral won two championships in the one-meter and three-meter platforms, and is the reigning national Diver of the Year. Amaral says competing against major schools such as Clemson and Alabama helps her game, to a certain extent.
“We work every day to get better,” Amaral said. “It doesn’t matter how good I did last year, it doesn’t matter. There’s always something you can improve on. I think the meets this year were different from last year because the girls were really good. It was a good challenge for me.”
For Amelia Strom, who swims the breaststroke and individual medley, part of the challenge as a relatively new program has been making a name for themselves.
“And the challenge this year is going to be holding onto that and doing just as well if not better,” said Strom. “The way we do that is just approaching practice [as] you can get better every single day.”
Swimming and Diving was established at West Florida to satisfy Title IX requirements when the football program was begun. But Head Coach Andrew Hancock says their record in the first three seasons has helped dispel any talk about being an “add-on.” It also helps with recruiting.
“It was something that we thought may take a little bit of time to establish a little bit of credibility in this area," said Hancock. “But I think that being able to show that this is actually legitimate, this is not just something the university added for fun, I think that’s made this a real, legitimate, attractive option for local athletes.”
When it comes to the wins, the championships and the personal accolades, Coach Andrew Hancock credits the team – many of whom are doing a high-end brand of multitasking.
“They’re filling out law school applications, they’re filling out med school applications,” said Hancock. “They’re doing all that while attending class, while maintaining great grades, while practicing 20 hours a week.”
The UWF swimming and diving program, says Hancock, has been built on “success breeds success,” bringing in the right athletes to get things started in 2013. The key now is subsequent recruiting classes to provide fresh challenges, aimed at not letting anyone get comfortable.
