After five weeks, 35 days and 1,530 hours of training since the North Coast Athletic Conference Championship meet the DePauw's Men and Women's Swimming and Diving team is off to the Div. III National Championships in Shenandoah, TX.
The men and women flew out Monday, March 17 and the meet will start Wednesday, March 20 lasting through Friday.
Nine men and four women will compete in the 2013 National Championship. Three men - senior Matt Kukurugya, juniors Matt Haeske and Jack Burgeson - and one woman, senior Nicole Rossillo, will return to visit Shenandoah for the second time. The last time the Tigers swam there was during the 2011 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship.
The last time the men swam in Shenandoah, they won the SCAC title beating out Trinity College. Kukurugya said for the men that went two years ago, swimming in the same pool will be familiar and beneficial.
"We know what the pool feels like, looks like and what the lighting is like," Kukurugya said. "We're prepared for this meet. It's exciting [to go back] because the last time we were there we won the title. It's a pool we have all swam fast in."
Coming off of a competitive season the swimmers going to nationals have not let up on their training. This is the hardest the men have trained compared to past teams that have qualified, according to head coach Adam Cohen, and the women have been training just as hard.
"Usually teams are just satisfied with going and our coach wants us to go there, drop more time and drop in places to get closer to the top," sophomore Emily Weber said.
Both the men and women have been doing doubles, six days a week to prepare for the meet. The physical ability these swimmers have is only half the battle though. Swimming in Shenandoah against the best in the country will be a mental game.
"We're getting ourselves into the mindset to competing at a national level," sophomore Alex Alfonso said.
Freshman Dana Zerbini will compete in the 200 and 800-yard freestyle relays along with an individual relay swimming 50 yards of breaststroke. Zerbini has seen the team come together over the season and anticipates a strong performance at nationals.
"We're an extremely supportive team, the boys and girls, we're really going to be able to be there for each other to encourage each other to swim the fastest we all can," Zerbini said.
Freshman Blake Lehmann is excited to step foot on the pool deck and glide through the water competing against the best of the best.
"All year it's been a tough, long season and it's cool to finally be at the point where we'll be able to see all of our hard work pay off," Lehmann said. "We've put hundreds of miles into our season."
After all the team's hard training the team has set steep goals. The men's team goal is to place in the top ten and the women want to come back with an All-American title, which would put them in the top 16. The teams are also looking to break more school records.
Weber looks to cut her times down after breaking the 800-yard freestyle relay school record with a time of 7:39:85 at the NCAC meet and breaking the school record in the 500-yard free.
"I want to make a stance," Weber said. "I want other teams to notice us coming up. We are underneath Kenyon and Denison and we want to close the gap."
Alfonso has high hopes for himself individually and the relay he is swimming.
"I want to place top eight in the 200 IM and get the relay that I'm on to place top 5," Alfonso said. "We have a chance at placing high relay wise."
The women will be competing in two relays - the 800-yard and 400-yard relays - and individual qualifiers to swim are Weber in the 500-yard free and freshman Caroline Bridges in the 50-yard free.
The men are sending their 800-yard frees relay and 400-yard and 200-yard medley relays. Individual qualifiers are sophomore Casey Hooker who will swim the 500-yard free and 100-yard butterfly. Kukurugya will swim the 100-yard backstroke while Alfonso will swim the 200-yard IM and 100-yard backstroke. Freshman Alex Grissom will swim the 500-yard free and Lehmann will swim the 50-yard free.
"This is the accumulation that we have been striving for all season," Kukurugya said. "Every year DePauw swims we've gotten faster and faster moving up in the national rankings. Hopefully this year proves the same."