The women's swimming and diving season opens Friday, when UIC travels to Indiana State for the first dual meet of the campaign.  Swimming head coach Tim Loeffler and diving coach Susan Bromberg shared their thoughts on the upcoming season.

Overview

One of the most decorated swimmers in UIC and Horizon League history, Brie Hines, exhausted her eligibility last year.  Sophia Shalabi and Marisa Savegnago also graduated.  Senior Lexie Joy and sophomore Cydney Liebenberg, who each won Horizon League championships last season, are among the group of returning swimmers and divers.  "Our women's team has relied on Brie, Sophia, and Marisa for the last three years.  Now that they're gone, this year's team has to find out who they are and who's going to step up and take those roles," Loeffler said.  "With our returning swimmers, we have a good amount of depth.  What's nice is that in each of the strokes, we have a good upperclassman leader."

Breaststroke

Jessica Amyette finished fourth in the 200 breast at the Horizon League championships last year in a career best time of 2:18.80.  The junior will look to fill the void in breaststroke left by Shalabi.  "Jessica had a nice breakout year for us as a sophomore, so she'll be a leader for our younger breaststrokers," Loeffler said.  Sophomore Claudia Kirkpatrick and freshman Becca Ballo will have opportunities to earn points in the breaststroke events.

Backstroke

"We've got the combination of Abby Kunze and Hannah Olsen leading that pack.  We gained a lot of experience the last couple of years at conference," Loeffler stated.  Kunze won the 100 back in the Green Bay-Valparaiso tri-meet, while Olsen was a top-8 finisher in the 200 back at the prestigious TYR Invitational.  Morgan Bosse and freshman Sydney Tobias will look to earn spots in the backstroke lineup.

Butterfly

Ashlin Ruiz qualified for the consolation finals in the 200 fly at last year's Horizon League meet, and will seek to improve on that finish.  "You've also got Annette Lesnicki and Kelly McGowan, who help us and give us range all the way from the 50 fly in a relay to the 200 fly," Loeffler added.  He also pointed to freshman Anna Scovill as a newcomer who could earn points in the butterfly events.  "Anna has been showing a lot of progress in practice, so we're looking to her to make some big jumps in the first few meets."

Freestyle

"When it comes to our freestyle events, our sprinters are a great group," Loeffler said.  "Dani Cabrera is one of our seniors who'll be leading that group.  We have a strong freshman class coming in for our sprints too.

"We've got Lexie Joy, who is the best middle distance freestyler in the conference."  Joy set three school records and a Horizon League record, winning the conference championship in the 200 free. 

"With our distance, it's our first year in my tenure that we haven't had Brie Hines.  But we've got Maddie Lammers, who's always been a workhorse for us, and a freshman in Christina Neri who's already proven that she's ready to take on a bigger load, so we're excited to see how she does in her first meet."

Relays

Not surprisingly, the departed seniors played big roles in the Flames' relays last year.  That's why, as Loeffler said, "More than ever, this year is a clean slate.  There's more opportunity to get yourself in a spot for conference or for relays than there ever has been before.  We're going to be tinkering with our relays.  The biggest difference between this year and the last few years is this year we need people to step up and show us that they're ready to take those spots."

While veterans like Joy, Kunze, Lesnicki, Cabrera, and Misha Neal will be prominent in several relays, Loeffler expects some freshmen to step into some relay slots as well.  "We're excited to see what Beth Kelzer can do.  She can play a lot of different roles for us, especially in the relays.  Lauren Johnson and Maddie Hammer are two girls who we were hoping could do something down the road for us, but are already starting to show bursts of excellence and we're going to see if they can play a bigger role sooner than later."

Diving

Sophomore Cydney Liebenberg leads the squad as the defending Horizon League champion on the 1-meter and 3-meter boards.  Bromberg said that Liebenberg is ready to build on her success.  "Cydney has some good goals that she set for herself this year.  A lot of it has to do with improving on what she accomplished last year.  Last year we refined a lot of her dives.  She learned a few new dives, but not a lot.  This year we're looking to add some more degree of difficulty to her list just so she can dominate even more.  I think she can have a lot of success in the conference again."

Natalie Williams' junior year was cut short by injury.  She will be the team's veteran in her senior season.  Kallie Zuidema showed steady progress in her freshman year, capped by qualifying for the finals on both boards at the Horizon League meet.  "Kallie surprised herself last year with how she improved," Bromberg related.  "She trained all summer and I'm seeing her getting back to where she was last year.  I'm glad that we're going to have Natalie back at full strength as our one senior girl.  She would have been a big contributor last year except for an injury that kept her out of the end of the season.  She wants to finish strong."

The team welcomes one newcomer in freshman Katie Petro, about whom Bromberg said, "she is learning a lot.  She's at that point right now where she's acquiring new skills and getting comfortable with her new stuff.  I anticipate that she'll fall in line with what Kallie did last year, where the beginning of the season will go slow but as we get closer to that conference meet, she'll pick up even more and make a big contribution."

2018-19 Schedule

The season starts this weekend for the women.  Next weekend, the women will have an off week while the men compete for the first time.  Loeffler scheduled the first meets in that manner so that the coaches could focus on each team and identify the areas that will require improvement. 

Of the rest of the schedule, which includes back-to-back meets in late October, Horizon League dual and tri-meets, and the annual TYR Invitational, Loeffler said, "I set up our schedule for this year so that we won't be surprised by anything we see at conference.  To have a weekend where Friday night we'll compete against Northwestern and Illinois – two Big Ten teams – and then the next day going to Olivet Nazarene, who are the NAIA national champions, will help prepare us for the four-day conference meet."

The Flames will swim against conference rivals Oakland and Milwaukee before taking a training break that will last from Thanksgiving until after New Year's.  The swimmers will have two meets upon returning to prepare for the conference championships.  The first of the two will be at IUPUI, who is hosting the Horizon League meet.  After that, the Flames will host Green Bay.  The diving squad will host the annual UIC Diving Invitational February 2.