SPORTS
Liberty Champion/B4
JANUARY 28, 2014
Swimming and diving make a splash Liberty takes over the No. 15 ranking in the mid-major polls after defeating Vanderbilt and West Florida Nate Haywood
nhaywood@liberty.edu
The Liberty Lady Flames swimming and diving team (6-4, 1-0) hopes to continue riding their momentum to the Davidson Duals Swim Meet after its dominating performance in a Jan. 18 meet against Vanderbilt and West Florida. The Lady Flames came in first place in eight of the 16 events in the competition. Senior Emilie Kaufman finished first in three of the four events she competed in, including the women’s 200 medley relay. “In the pool, I’ve definitely become a stronger athlete emotionally,” Kaufman said. “My head is in my races more. … “I’m a more positive swimmer, and I think I can credit a lot of that to (Head Coach Jake Shellenberger).” Sophomore Jess Reinhardt and Junior Meghan Babcock also contributed to both relay wins. Reinhardt won the women’s 100 butterfly and finished second in the women’s 200 butterfly. Babcock too had success, as she won the women’s 50 freestyle while finishing second in the 100 freestyle. Shellenberger said he was pleased with his team’s performance after having not competed in nearly two months. The Vanderbilt meet took place Jan. 18, while Liberty’s previous meet took place Nov. 23. “In practice, we did a lot of different things to simulate racing,” Shellenberger said. “You can stand up on the blocks and dive as much as you want and work on specific race details as much as you want, but it’s kind of like football and basketball — it’s not game speed. …You really have
GOALS continued from B1 “You kind of have to start over, (and) the scouting reports are a little bit more bare because you haven’t seen a lot of these teams,” McQuillan said. “So we just want to make sure that we’re ready. That’s the biggest thing — preparation. The best team will come out on top, and we just want to make sure we’ve done everything we can to be that team.” The coach’s straightforward attitude
Courtney Russo | Liberty Champion
PROGRESS — The swimming and diving team looks to build on its current success with a strong perfomance at the Davidson Duals Jan. 31-Feb. 1. to race to get back into racing shape.” Shellenberger has coached the team for four years now, and the Lady Flames have progressed each year during his tenure. Under Shellenberger, the Lady Flames have a 39-17 record. Shellenberger is also doing what he can to have a direct, positive impact on his team.
Liberty will face Davidson University (6-2), Howard University (0-11, 0-2), and Georgia Southern University (5-1, 2-0) Friday, Jan. 31. Shellenberger was confident that his team’s recent victory would motivate them in the future. “(The victory) helps a lot,” Shellenberger said. “Athletes compete not because they love to practice. They do it because
they love to race. … Competition is why we do it. We don’t train to train. We train to race.”
naturally leads the Flames to a simple game plan. “We’re just going to stick to our strengths and make adjustments as we go along,” Zumpano said. “A lot of things — studying film, stuff like that — will probably help, but for the most part, I think it’s just about knowing who we are and what we’re capable of as a team.” Topping the list of the unique strengths the Flames plan to use this season is the team’s significant depth.
“We’ve always been a very good team, in terms of our starting guys having always been great players, but we’ve sometimes been shallow,” McQuillan said. “I think this season, teams will see that we’ve got not just one and two, but potentially three and four lines of guys that are very good lacrosse players. Our midfield in particular I think is going to be pretty spectacular.” The Flames first match will be agaisnt the Wake Forest University Demon
Deacons. “I think we were credited with what we were able to accomplish in the last three seasons, but at the end of the day, it’s just a number,” McQuillan said. “We have a lot to prove. We’ve got a lot at stake. We just want to make sure that we’re ready.”
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