Junior swimmer Casey Hooker helped the DePauw University men's swim team fly their way to success this season with an overall record of 6-2. Hooker specializes in the 200-yard butterfly, the 100-yard butterfly and the 500-yard freestyle and will lead the Tigers into the NCAC Championship held at Denison University from February 12 through 15. The Tigers will compete against top ranked schools like Kenyon College and Denison University with hopes of qualifying for the NCAA championships. We caught up with Hooker to chat about the upcoming postseason. Here's what he had to say:
The DePauw (TDP): For people who haven't kept up with the team's season so far, just briefly tell us how the year has gone.
Casey Hooker (CH): As a team, even though we've lost two meets this year, the first time we've lost in three years to my knowledge, we've still done a lot better. Our schedule has gotten a lot tougher, but we're getting a lot faster times in season, and our midseason times are faster than they've ever been. We're looking to have a very good conference meet and hopefully a good national meet. Individually, I've hit pretty good times in season and I'm really excited to taper conference and nationals.
TDP: What do you do personally to prepare for a meet? Do you have any quirks or special rituals that you have to do before you swim?
CH: Just stretch out, listen to music, get loose and watch other guys swim. Just seeing other guys get fast times gets me psyched up for my races.
TDP: What were some of the team goals you guys laid out at the beginning of the year?
CH: Our two biggest goals were to score 1,000 points at the conference meet and to be a top ten team at nationals. We'd also like to see guys score top nine individually at conference. Being in the hardest conference will definitely make that a challenge, but it's also exciting knowing we have so many fast races to look forward to, and then hopefully qualifying more than nine guys at the national meet. The last two years we've only had nine guys go, so it would be very cool if we could have maybe ten or twelve guys go. Just having a bigger presence at the NCAA meet is huge.
TDP: What personal goals did you have for yourself?
CH: There are three or four other guys that are within a half second in the 100-fly and 200-fly. Hopefully I can beat them, but just being able to compete with them is my goal for conference and then for nationals hopefully being top eight in my individual events.
TDP: How does competing against tough Division I opponents such as Xavier University help you when facing other Division III schools?
CH: Swimming teams like Xavier helps us just because they're closer to the level that Kenyon and Denison are at. I mean, they're not as good as Kenyon and Denison, but just swimming faster teams in season just helps us get in that mindset. You know, we've always got to go as fast as we can, and we can't ease off for an easy meet, just keep the in season goal in focus.
TDP: A lot of times, a long break between meets can hurt a team's ability to perform. As a team, are you worried about having any rust from the long layoff since your last meet?
CH: I don't think so. Even though we lost to University of Chicago, we had some pretty good times at it, and I think we've started easing off the length of the practices. I think we're getting fired up because we think we can make a good presence and make a statement at the conference tournament next week.
TDP: What are you and the team doing to prepare for conference?
CH: Besides dropping yards, we're just trying to get more rest. I think that's the biggest thing, just getting rest and getting hydrated are the two biggest things that you can do to get your body prepared.
TDP: Who do you see as your biggest competition in the NCAC Championships?
CH: Well Kenyon and Denison are both pretty even. It's going to be a dogfight for both of them to win, but I personally think Kenyon will win.
TDP: You guys finished the season strong winning three of your last four meets. Do you feel that that momentum will carry over to the conference meet?
CH: I think so, yes. There are a lot of guys, like Chris Ercoli, for example, who have had great times in the last few meets. I think that [Ercoli] will have a great conference meet. He'll be right on the cusp of qualifying for nationals and there are a lot of other guys like that, too, [who] will have some exciting time drops next week.
TDP: How confident is the team following a 4-0 record against NCAC opponents in the regular season?
CH: I think that it's nice to beat the other teams in the conference, but we want to race the top-end guys from Kenyon and Denison. Knowing that we can make a presence in the conference is huge for us.
TDP: What sort of expectations does the team have for the NCAC meet? What would you guys consider a success?
CH: I think having all five relays qualify for the national meet, and then having multiple individual times that will get invited.