Swim and dive season underway

The University of South Dakota swim and dive team has its sights set on February’s Summit League Championships after being picked first in the conference’s preseason poll. While the ranking has brought on high expectations; the team is focused on improving throughout the season and keeping their eyes on their end goal.

“Its a great honor to be picked first, but at the end of the day, the preseason poll doesn’t mean much,” head coach Jason Mahowald said. “If we stay focused, work hard and continue to improve, everything else will take care of itself.”

The Coyotes opened the season with a win for the women’s team at Minnesota State, giving the team an opportunity early on to evaluate their progress and show areas of improvement.

“The meet confirmed some of the areas we knew we needed to improve, which gives us a good direction moving forward,” Mahowald said.

With a mix of upperclassmen and underclassmen, the team is continuing to build chemistry as the season progresses. However, the freshmen have been adjusting and learning what it means to be a part of a team at the collegiate level.

“They’ve done a really good job learning our training system and adjusting to how we do things. I think as they continue to get comfortable over the next few weeks, we’ll really start to see them take off,” Mahowald said.

As the athletes continue to improve, upcoming competitions will provide more opportunities for the Coyotes to gain experience before the championship. Although winning remains a priority, the team’s preparation has been centered around reaching their peak performance in the winter. 

“Our focus has always been on the championships at the end of the season,” Mahowald said. “We want to compete and win every time we get in the pool, but we also use each meet as an opportunity to improve and prepare for February.”

The team is also looking to have more athletes qualify for the NCAA Championships in March. Already having national-level experience on the team, they hope to raise expectations and encourage others to strive for the same goal.

“When you have a whole group of athletes who share the goal of competing at the national level, it raises the level of everyone around them and makes the team better,” Mahowald said.

As the Coyotes continue through the season, they hope to turn their No. 1 preseason ranking into results and deliver when it matters most at the Summit League Championships.