Friday, October 23, 2009
A change is in the air for the Kansas swimming and diving team as they travel to Fayetteville, Ark., tomorrow for duals against Florida and Arkansas.
File photo
Junior Iuliia Kuzhil takes a breath during a 100-yard individual medley competition Sept. 18. Thirteen new Kansas swimming and diving team members will compete against other Big 12 teams for the first time during the Big 12 Relays Friday.
In past seasons the Jayhawks filled their non-conference schedule with duals against mediocre schools, interspersed with a few meets against more talented squads. Now, however, as the Jayhawk’s begin their 2009-2010 non-conference schedule they will regularly face off against some of the best schools in the nation.
Coach Clark Campbell and his staff made the scheduling adjustment to help move the Kansas swimming and diving program forward with the hope of making the program more competitive on the national level.
“We took a leap of faith and decided to schedule much more difficult teams,” Campbell said.
The Kansas swimming and diving team will have its hands full against Florida and Arkansas as it begins this tough new regimen.
Last year Florida qualified 19 swimmers and divers for the NCAA championships after winning their 17th SEC championship. To put that in perspective, in the past five seasons Kansas has qualified only nine team members to the NCAA championships en route to no conference championships.
Florida also fields one of the most talented backstroke swimmers in the world. Gemma Spofforth, Florida senior, is the world record holder in the 100-meter backstroke. She will provide junior swimmer Iuliia Kuzhil, school record holder in both the 100-yard and 200 yard backstroke, and other Kansas backstroke swimmers with a difficult challenge.
“Florida is one of the best teams in the country bar none,” Campbell said. “They’re very talented and very deep.”
Kansas matches up a little better in their dual against an Arkansas team that finished third at last year’s SEC championships. The Jayhawks lost a closely contested dual meet against the Razorbacks last January by a score of 165-135.
“Arkansas has some of the best balance I’ve ever seen,” Campbell said.
Despite the increased level of non-conference competition, the team will approach the duals this weekend the same way it would approach any other meet.
“We need to go in there with the same mindset and swim the best we can,” junior swimmer Alyssa Potter said.
While the team’s state of mind for its races may be the same as usual, the tough competition should generate plenty of excitement amongst the Kansas swimmers and divers.
“It’s a lot more fun getting ready for the highest level of competition when compared to another team that you could easily beat,” Campbell said.
After swimming against 2008-2009 top 25 finishers Arkansas and Florida this upcoming weekend, the team will have meets with other perennial top 25 schools such as Virginia and UCLA.
“I hope and believe our team will compete on a high level,” Kuzhil said.
— Edited by Jonathan Hermes
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