Georgetown swimming and diving, to the average fan, might appear to be at a dismal nadir.
Both the men’s and women’s swim teams finished a distant third last Sunday in a tri-meet against tough opponents West Virginia and St. Bonaventure, and only the men’s 400 free relay was able to score a victory. The women are 1-7 on the season (0-3 in the Big East), while the men remain winless. Last month saw the unexpected resignation of long-time head coach Bethany Bower, and the team has struggled all season with keeping the team together, losing athletes to injury, study abroad, and discontent, leaving the men with a squad of just 12 (all underclassmen) and the women with 24.
The Hoyas did, however, deliver 15 season-best times in West Virginia, and the mood in McCarthy pool appears to be one of optimism—after all, what goes down must come up.
Interim Head Coach Steven Cartwright, who was promoted from the assistant position, said he thinks his team is poised to swim some of their fastest times at the end of the season, when it really counts.
“Our focus is really on the Big East Championships, and it has been all season,” Cartwright said emphatically. “Of course, we try to win every meet, but if we come out with our best times it’s been a successful meet.”
He considered the team’s performance over the weekend cause for celebration despite final scores of 167-55 against W.Va and 167-73 against St. Bonaventure on the men’s side, and 174-64 to W.Va and 168.5-68.5 to St. B on the women’s side. Cartwright cited especially the extremely positive attitude of the swimmers and the camaraderie of the team, even in the wake of the tumult of Bowers’ resignation. The swimmers rose to the challenge of “swimming up” against their more successful opponents, he said.
“The whole program has stepped up—they’ve had to—in practice, in their personal lives, in preparation for Big East,” Cartwright said. “This is not an easy thing to go through mid-season.
18 Hoyas have already achieved Big East meet qualifying times, and those who have not yet qualified are beginning the process of tapering (resting up) in an attempt to make the cut during remaining regular season competition.
Several swimmers have a shot at placing highly in the Big East Championships, including freshman Laura Alito (ranked 24th in the 100 butterfly) and sophomore Goran Bistric, currently 15th in the 200 back and 24th in the 100 back.
Sergio Lopez, coach of the Mountaineers, was happy with the performance of his own team, who won the meet despite having five of his top swimmers sidelined with illnesses. He was happy to swim against the Hoyas for the first time in recent memory, and said he hopes building a rivalry between the schools will help rejuvenate Georgetown. Lopez likened the situation of coaching at Georgetown to that of academically comparable Northwestern, where he transformed an unranked team into a top-ten one.
“Steve seems excited for the challenge,” said Lopez of the Hoyas. “I believe that Georgetown can have a very good team.”
St. Bonaventure coach Lance Brennan agreed.
“When a coach leaves at mid season one of two things will probably occur,” said Brennan. “You will have a mass exiting of swimmers who believed in the outgoing coach and feel that an injustice has been made. Or they do what I saw at WVU. It looked more like they were excited about a new beginning and ready to show that they can do more than what they have been doing in the past.”
Hello. Can you please put me in touch with the photographer, Sarah Rafsky? My grandmother’s married name was Sarah Rafsky. I wonder if there’s any connection.
Thank you.
Clifford Irving