The swimmers wandered through the halls of the University Recreation Center Gymnasium on Monday afternoon as they turned in their equipment and bid farewell to the 2006-2007 swimming and diving season.After a sixth place showing for the men’s and women’s teams in last week’s Mountain West Conference Swimming and Diving Championships, head coach Richard Sybesma said he was pleased with the overall performance of the H20 Frogs.

“It was a good meet but not a great meet in terms of everyone peaking at the same time,” Sybesma said. “Some swimmers need a little more rest, some need a little rest.”

There was still hope for the H20 Frogs after the meet as the team managed to lock down four school records, and have two individual event winners while shorthanded.

“Even missing junior sprinter Scott McCracken, we still broke two relay records, and the boys did an outstanding job considering their anchor wasn’t there,” Sybesma said.

The 400-yard freestyle relay team was led by senior Guillermo Ramirez who was a workhorse for the team during the meet who anchored the record setting relay squad.

“Guillermo’s 44.5 second leg of the final 100-yards of the free was huge,” Sybesma said.

Ramirez filled in for McCracken who was ill during the conference meet, but the loss of a lead sprinter impacted the overall performance.

“The guys did a great job and had we had a full team we could have finished in fifth place overall,” Ramirez said. “But we still came together and did our job.”

Ramirez has yet to call it quits after his final conference meet and is preparing for the Pan-American games and the Olympic Trials for 2008.

“I am working on making the cut for the Olympics right now,” Ramirez said.

The women’s team was led by senior Erica Tate, who broke her former school record in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.17.

Freshman butterfly swimmer Stephanie Futscher set a personal best in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:04.44, en route to a second place overall finish.

“I was really nervous going in there as the third seed, and I wanted to keep my place or move up,” Futscher said. “I was excited to move up a place and I did what I needed to do.”

Both squads were senior heavy going into the conference meet so the rebuilding process will be one of the steps in preparing for next season, Sybesma said.

“We have got to recruit well, and we have found six girls and two guys early,” Sybesma said. “What we are looking for are quality swimmers.”

The season for the swimmers has come to a close, but even as the swimmers hand back their gear, the divers have the NCAA Sectionals in Austin to prepare for and keep the season alive.