MASON NEALE
Special to The Leader
Dive into the excitement and splash into the fun, because the upcoming Fredonia swimming and diving season is going to make some waves!
“I really like where our team is at right now, we have a great group of people, they all are really enthusiastic teammates,” Head Coach Bill Bradley said. “They work hard every day and make it fun to go to practice — we have a really high character team this year.”
This is Bradley’s third year coaching the team, and the team is hoping to make this the best season yet under him.
The men’s team has four swimmers on the roster this year and are led by juniors Noah Wisniewski and Patrick McCrone. They may be on the smaller side by the numbers on the roster, but they are a strong team.
The women’s team is led by senior Kaylee Constantino and juniors Megan Orrange and Lilly Baer.
This year, the women’s team has 11 swimmers on the roster.
They are looking to have a truly remarkable season, having already won their first competition 97-74 against Pitt-Bradford, where they took first place in many events.
“Already, in practice everyone seems to be ahead of where we were at this time last season, so I have a feeling it’s going to be a good season,” Baer said.
The teams are starting to look very impressive, and they are determined to perform better this year at SUNYACS than last season.
“There’s always room for improvement in swimming, but everyone has their own things to work on,” Baer said. “We’ve all been working on the technical aspects of each stroke by doing drills in practice, and then working hard to get faster as well.”
According to Baer, the Blue Devils have been working really hard and have been putting in the hours in the off-season and in practice to improve and be better than ever this season.
Coach Bradley agrees, saying, “The team has already improved in areas we needed to improve. The team is really clicking this year and pushing each other to be the best that they can be.”
Fredonia will hopefully be hosting a two-day invite in December, and the team is currently working on getting another one in November.
Everyone wanting to support the Fredonia Blue Devils swimming and diving team should take a trip down to the Natatorium located in Steele Hall.