Posted: 02/28/07

For the record(s)
Swimming and diving team break school records at New England championships

Ryan Lowell | fact checker
rlowell@smcvt.edu

The St. Michael’s College swimming and diving team’s season came to a close on Feb. 18 at the New England championships in Durham, N.H., but not before three swimmers broke St. Michael’s school records.

Junior Michael Kaas, and first-year students Erick Gallager and Lindsey Burgess broke previous records while helping their team compete against division II opponents for the last time this season.

A record-breaking weekend

The St. Michael's swimming and diving team finished their season on Sunday, Feb. 18 at the New England championships in Durham, N.H. (Photo courtesy of Marisa Mulligan)

Although St. Michael's did not win the championships, three swimmers achieved personal victories. Gallager broke the college record in the 50-yard butterfly event.

Gallager swam the 50-yard butterfly in 25.10 seconds, breaking a 12-year-old record by only four-hundredths of a second.

He says he was aware of the record before heading to Durham.

“I was a few tenths off earlier in the season,” Gallager says. “So I dropped three-tenths of a second off my time and that was enough to break the record.”

Gallager says practicing six days a week helped the team get physically ready, but that rest also played an important part in keeping mentally sharp.

“The closer we got to the championship meet, our practices got a little easier so we could keep rested and focus,” Gallager says.

Head Coach Jim Donoghue says this process is called tapering, and that it helps the team get rested up and focus on the little things. He says that tapering is an inexact science, but he feels it was a success this year.

"I was really pleased with most everybody's swimming," Donoghue says. "There were places where we could've done better, but there were also places where we did better than I possibly could have expected."

Senior diver Michael DeGrandpre says the team also took actions outside of the pool to get ready for the meet, including drawing names out of a hat and buying something for another athlete on the team. Some of the male members of the team even shave the majority of their bodies in order to feel faster, he says.

“I didn’t shave anything this year,” DeGrandpre says. “I need hair on my legs because I lose grip when I go into dives without it. But most guys shave their legs, arms, chests and back in some cases. A couple of guys even shave their heads. It’s just another way to get psyched for the event.”

These preparations lead to results that the team could be proud of, DeGrandpre says.

“I think everyone’s pretty pleased,” he says. “A lot of people had their personal best times. Kids were shaving massive amounts of time from their times in regular season events.”

Junior diver Ed Fennessey agrees that the championships were a good way to end the season, and he says even athletes who didn’t break records seemed pleased.

“We’re here to have fun more than anything else,” Fennessey says. “And we really accomplished that.”

Diver of the year

The St. Michael’s swimmers weren’t the only ones reaching milestones at the championships. DeGrandpre was ranked diver of the year out of all of the division II schools that competed at the meet.

Seven senior team members will be graduating this May. Head Coach Jim Donoghue says their talent will be missed, but he is still optimistic about future seasons. (Photo courtesy of Marisa Mulligan)

“To qualify you have to be a four-year diver,” DeGrandpre says. “And you have to have the most accumulated points for championships.”

DeGrandpre says he did not qualify for the championships in his first year, but he was able to accumulate the most points in the past three years alone. He says he never dove in high school, so he has improved every year he’s been at St. Michael’s.

“Diving in general seems to get more fun each year,” DeGrandpre says. “But this year was definitely the best because I’ve been learning more, growing more and cleaning my dives up. My technique got better as the years progressed.”

Fennessey says that DeGrandpre is an asset to the team, not only because of his diving skills, but also because of his presence outside of the pool.

“He really is the glue that kept us all together and sane,” Fennessey says. “He added so much emotional and mental support. It will be tough next year not having him come sauntering and smiling in.”

DeGrandpre says he welcomes a break from swimming, as the team has been constantly practicing for almost the entire year, but he also says he knows he’ll miss being in the pool next fall.

“My whole mentality with diving is to just have fun,” he says. “I know I’m not Greg Louganis, but I’m just looking for an opportunity to have a good time. I had an awesome time in my overall career.”

Wait 'till next year

Junior Michael Kaas (center) set the college record in the 400-yard individual medley event in 2005 before breaking his own record at this year's championships. (Photo courtesy of Michael DeGrandpre)

Members of the team say they are happy with how they finished at the championships, and that they performed better than previous years.

“We were a lot more consistent this year,” Fennessey says. “We dove at a higher level, and we had closer scores to the more competitive divers.”

Fennessey says he was pleased that the divers were able to qualify for the three-meter event despite not having the correct size board for practice.

“We don’t have a three-meter board, and all the schools we were competing against have one in their pools,” Fennessey says. “Considering we all qualified without one, I think that’s a solid accomplishment.”

After the team's performance at the championships, Donoghue says he has high expectations for next year.

"I'm always an optimist," Donoghue says. "Five men graduated and two really great women. Replacing them will be tough, but we've got a lot of young talent, and hopefully recruiting will go well."

Fennessey says he agrees that it will be difficult to lose seniors like DeGrandpre, but that he sees a huge improvement in the younger divers over the course of the season.

“We should do equally well if not better than last year,” Fennessey says. “Hopefully we’ll just keep improving.”