NEW ORLEANS - In head coach
Randy Horner's second year on the
Lakefront, the University of New Orleans swimming and diving program
continued to make strides while positioning themselves as one of the
top mid-major programs in the nation.
With the men back on campus for the first time since 1992 and the women in their fifth year since being reinstated, the program started early in making a name for itself.
In the first dual of the year for the Privateer men and the first on the national calendar, the squad contested nationally ranked program Stanford in Baton Rouge, La. in a dual that brought a great deal of attention to the UNO program both locally and in the national swimming community.
With only two weeks of practice under their belt, the all-freshman squad contested a finely-tuned machine, breaking seven school records from the previous era from the get-go. Each of the seven records would fall once more during the season as the men broke every school record in the book, topping the list on 22 school records over the course of the season, which included 17 new marks at the conference championships.
The men's second dual of the season and the women's first, both taking place in the Crescent City against Incarnate Word set the tone for the season. After the Privateers swept the Cardinals, four athletes received Sun Belt Conference recognition as
Johnny DeMaine,
Jonathan Field and
Kelly Swartzbaugh received Diver of the Week with
Cristina Lay getting a nod as Swimmer of the Week.
Prior to the four honorees, the UNO program had only received two such honors in school history when
Sarah Gros was selected twice as Swimmer of the Week in 2004.
By year's end, Horner was handing out the awards on a consistent basis as the Privateers picked up 11 total honors on the season. Joining the four aforementioned student-athletes were
Catalina Mendieta,
Birkir Mar Jonsson and
Petar Petrovic. Multiple-winners included Field, DeMaine, Swartzbaugh and Lay.
Like the men, the women were no slouch when it came to breaking records, setting 15 school-records of their own, all of which came at the conference meet.
All the record-breaking was put to good use, especially for the women. A squad that had three finalists at the conference championships each year for the previous three years, the 2009 conference meet saw the Privateers post 11 top eight individual finishes in addition to the first three podium placements in relay events.
On the men's side, there were 12 appearances amongst the top eight in the conference. In the group, Petrovic made two appearances on the podium with
Ash Dougan and
Mark Schindler adding an appearance of their own. In the relays, the 400 medley unit also reached the podium.
At the end of the season, the showings by both teams were good enough for each to be ranked in the final CSCAA/CollegeSwimming.com Mid-Major Division I rankings.
After reaching the top 10 of the poll early in the season, the men finished in 12th while the women, who had never before appeared in the rankings reached as high as their final placement ? 23rd.
Just as they did in the pool, the all-freshmen men's squad achieved high marks outside of the pool as the team was named to the Speedo Academic All-American list in February.
The list, which comprises of swimming and diving teams that have a grade point average of 3.0 or higher, listed the Privateer squad as registering a 3.24 GPA for the fall 2008 semester.
All told, the UNO team GPA ranked eighth amongst men's Division I programs, higher than prestigious academic institutions such as Stanford, Notre Dame and UC-Berkley.
With the season, a first chance competing at the collegiate level for a large portion of the combined unit, at its end, the squad focuses on the following year.
The goals will only be higher, the times will be faster and much more will be expected of the unit which exceeded many expectations.
