After the women’s swimming team faces Colorado State today, both the men’s and women’s teams will get ready to take on Brigham Young’s teams this Saturday. The women are coming off a 79-61 victory against North Texas and a 63-44 win against Incarnate Word, which gave the team four wins this season. The men’s team hasn’t competed since Oct. 5 when it defeated the UT-Permian Basin Falcons 104-94.
Head coach Richard Sybesma said he remains optimistic and has been making sure both teams are ready for BYU.
“They’ve had a solid program for years, and they’ll come in ready for us,” Sybesma said. “We’re going to have to swim our best.”
The last time these teams met, TCU was a little lethargic, Sybesma said. The team has overcome this shortcoming by more intense training and team focus, he said.
Senior sprint, butterfly and freestyle swimmer Erica Tate was the team’s Most Valuable Player for the last two seasons and said she shares her coaches optimism.
“We’re really prepared, and we had a really good meet against BYU last year,” Tate said. “They have new freshmen that look promising and they are overall pretty good, but we have a group of freshmen that also look promising.”
Through Tate’s four seasons with the squad, she said she now knows what to expect and how to better lead the underclassmen in their meets.
Keleigh Wentworth, a senior butterfly, individual medley and freestyle swimmer, said she hopes that her team will start out strong both in spirit and performance.
“We struggled last week, but if everybody gets together, and we get the momentum going, it leads to a better swim,” Wentworth said. “When both of those are strong, it leads to our best meets.”
The men’s team, which has been out of competition for nearly a month, is also preparing, and the team is ready to get back in the pool, said George Gooch, senior freestyle and butterfly swimmer.
BYU brings an experienced team to Fort Worth, but TCU will look to “give it their best,” Gooch said.
The team’s training regimen has not changed much for the upcoming meet, but, Gooch said, the mental aspect of training is important.
“We’ve been getting prepared both physically and mentally, because if you go in scared it can hinder your performance,” Gooch said.
Aran Bean, a senior breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle swimmer said some of the more intense training has brought the team together.
“We have a really cohesive team. It’s helped our performance and it has really molded us into a strong unit,” Bean said. “If we can’t win this meet, we want to at least improve in the meet.