As the Big East Championships approach, the Villanova swim and dive teams are aiming to continue what they do best: “find a way” to get in the lead, no matter what it takes.
According to head coach Rick Simpson, the Wildcats maintain a tradition of high standards and late-race perseverance that has helped the women seal the last 11 straight Big East titles. The women’s team is in a prime position to defend the conference championship this February, coming off a successful weekend in West Virginia.
“After months and months of training and racing, the hope and the goal is that they’ll start to show some of their best performances this time of the year,” Simpson said. “Just the fact that [this weekend] was probably our best in-season performance that we’ve seen all year, the timing couldn’t have been better.”
During the tri-meet on Saturday, Jan. 25, the women came away with a 184.5-115.5 win over Duquesne and a 160-140 victory over West Virginia.
While multiple swimmers set season bests, sophomore Riley Kudak set her lifetime time of 1:49.26 in the 200 free. Her performance earned her Big East Female Athlete of the Week honors on Monday.
Sophomore Anna Farley helped the Villanova women seal first place in the 200 medley relay, with a time of 1:42.95, and the 100 fly, clocking 54.15. She also finished third in the 200 IM with a time of 2:03.37.
The men also had a promising performance, despite taking a 52.5-247.5 loss to West Virginia on Saturday.
Junior Patrick Casey set a personal best in the 1650 free, earning second in the 1650 free with a time of 15:53.96. The only Wildcat to finish first for the men on Saturday was sophomore Justin Nowicki, who clocked 1:49.31 in the 200 fly.
On the diving side, senior Nicholas Jubilee earned third in the 1 meter (275.60) and 3 meter (297.45).
The West Virginia meet, falling during the intense stretch from January to February, served as an indicator of the team’s late-season resilience.
“It’s a very difficult time of year because a lot of the athletes are really broken down,” Simpson said. “This is kind of the last big push leading into the rest period before conference championships. A lot of athletes respond very differently, but we did a really good job [in West Virginia] across the board.”
Villanova’s deep roster and upperclassman leadership have become especially valuable during the most demanding part of the season.
“Everybody knows [the Big East] is going to be a very close race,” Simpson said. “When you approach a conference championship, one thing we really rely on is the leadership from our juniors and seniors.”
The five senior men and four senior women, as well as one grad student, Lexi Elkovitch, are teamed a sizable group of underclassmen to lead this season. The 28 women and 25 men on this year’s roster are the most that Simpson has overseen in his 25 years at the helm of the Villanova program.
But in swimming, there is strength in numbers. The Wildcats are notably well-balanced and flexible from race to race, helping them remain a formidable and sometimes shapeshifting competitor for the conference title.
Villanova faced its most difficult test of the season during a trip to Florida earlier this month. On Jan. 8, teams took on top-25 ranked Florida State. While the women fell, 232-68, and the men were beaten, 249-51, the Seminoles provided an opportunity for the ‘Cats to raise their standards.
“I’m a big fan of putting our athletes in a position that I call ‘swimming up’ to a different level,” Simpson said. “I think it worked really well. We came out of [the FSU meet] probably the best we’ve ever swam that time of the year. I attribute that to the athletes just stepping up to the challenge.”
The Big East Championships are less than four weeks away as the Wildcats close out the regular season this coming weekend. The men will have a final meet at Drexel on Jan. 31 before the annual Sprintfest event hosted by Villanova on Feb. 1.
Sprintfest, which started out as just another meet, has in recent years morphed into a senior celebration that the team looks forward to every season. The event involves both competitive races and community relays involving other varsity teams and campus organizations.
The swim and dive program also uses Sprintfest to highlight campus initiatives, such as NovaDance and the UNITAS program.
“[Sprintfest] is a blast,” Simpson said. “This time of the year is very high-stress for our athletes, so it’s a good stress reliever for them, to have an event that’s not about wins and losses. There’s a lot more going on there, which makes the timing perfect.”
The Wildcats will travel to Geneva, OH from Feb. 24 to 27 for the Big East Championships.
Simpson doesn’t know yet how the wins will come, but he feels confident that this year’s Wildcats are capable of swimming back up to the conference title and beyond.