Mary Harrison, Campus Carrier sports editor

It was the beginning of October, at the end of a long week of difficult practices. Head coach Astrid Escobar expected the men’s and women’s swim and dive teams to be tired, but she could tell they seemed discouraged about their lack of success during an early morning workout.  

Escobar took Berry’s swimmers and divers outside on the lawn of the Cage Athletic Center. As the sky began to lighten in one direction, the coach pointed to the still-dark sky, reminding her student athletes that just as each day’s dawn is preceded by darkness, athletic growth will involve disappointments. 

“You don’t get the process, and all the wins within the process, without the struggle,” Escobar said. 

The men’s and women’s swim and dive teams are both reaching for individual national competition this season, while the women view their chances of collective success to be handicapped by a lack of teammates.

The home season opener on Oct. 7 against Centre College brought success for Viking athletes in the pool, with at least two personal bests set and 10 first-place finishes. Junior and men’s team captain Andrew Horn said that these early time drops show that the teams are performing much better than at the same point last year. 

Despite record-setting individual performances, Centre still dominated Berry teams by 200-80 points for the women and 121-177 for the men.  

The women’s team currently sits at 15 athletes, and the men’s team at 18, instead of Escobar’s ideal 20-21 roster size. Sophomore swimmer and women’s team captain, Ashely Young, said that the women aim to win more points in meets against two or more teams, when their roster size is less of a disadvantage.

Having a small roster creates disproportionate losses in any meet, and particularly one-on-one meets. According to Young, athletes can only compete in four events per meet, but each event has a set number of competitors. Schools with more athletes fill the most slots, allowing more of their swimmers to place and win points for the team. 

“Even if you’re the best swimmer ever, you need teammates to help you win,” Young said.  

Both the men’s and women’s team graduated large and talented senior classes this Spring, Escobar said. While the men’s team had a huge incoming class of seven freshman and one sophomore, almost one-third of the team according to Horn, only three women’s recruits came to Berry. 

While female athletes hope to get on the podium at all meets, especially at the conference meet in the Spring, due to their current roster size, they are practically focused on breaking the school and venue records set by recent graduates and raising the bar of personal bests rather than dominating meets, Young said. 

The men’s team is still eyeing a team conference championship, if not this year than in the near future, thanks to the number of talented first-year swimmers, Horn said. Centre, Birmingham-Southern College and Rhodes College are the biggest obstacles in their path this year. Horn expects a non-conference swim against Piedmont College after returning from winter break to be a major test of how prepared the teams are for early Spring semester competition. 

Several male and female swimmers are aiming to qualify for national NCAA Division III competition. Freshman Nicholas Fonzo won the conference’s male Swimmer of the Week award for his performance at the Centre meet.  

Other swimmers to watch include junior Sam Tate, senior Ryan MacKinnon and junior Ethan Whiting, as well as the 200m Medley Relay team, on the men’s team, and freshmen Emily Kate Martin and Molly Ames and junior Molly Heath on the women’s team. 

For the first time in program history, the teams will attend a regular season meet after the Southern Athletic Association (SAA) conference championship in February. Escobar said that in addition to providing more of a cool-down buffer in her programming, the Emory Invitational gives athletes another opportunity to meet qualifying times for national competition.  

Horn said that after a long semester of working for the championship, circumstances can throw athletes off and cause them to miss their time targets. 

“[It gives] everybody a second chance, because sometimes that’s all people need to cap off their season,” Horn said. 

After the Centre meet, both teams focused on details like starts, turns and relay exchanges. Efficiency in technical details is what will help athletes shave off the seconds to win events and set personal and venue bests, Young said. Both teams came in more physically prepared than last season, Escobar said, allowing them to jump into technique immediately this Fall. 

Lexie Crosby, the only senior swimmer on the women’s team, said she felt the team lacked intention behind practices during her sophomore year. Since Escobar took over the program, athletes have a scientific reason behind every repetition and set, and it began to pay off with better times last season. 

“It was kind of like, if you want to do the same set, why are we doing this?” Crosby shared. “I want to know the why behind it, and [Escobar] gave us that why.” 

Escobar, who is beginning her second year as head coach of the swim and dive program, said the goal she most cares about during the 2023-2024 competition season is for her teams to understand how invested she is in them, regardless of the times they make in the pool.

As one of three head coaches without a full-time assistant, Escobar has to manage additional duties as the athletic department’s Director of Aquatics on top of head coaching responsibilities like adjusting program timelines and meeting swimmers about individual goals. 

The swim and dive program hopes to have its first assistant coach on campus by the end of the winter, Escobar said. In the meantime, upperclassmen have proven their investment in the program through their voluntary help with administrative tasks, Escobar said.  

“They look out for each other and I’m realizing they don’t just look out for each other,” Escobar said. “They made me feel like this is my team.”