Women’s swim and dive team remains focused

The Minnesota State women’s swimming and diving team have continued their dominant ways this season. Since winter break, they have placed second in the Rochester invite, won their duel against the University of Sioux Falls, and won the University of Wisconsin Stephen’s Point Invite. They also traveled to Puerto Rico over winter break to compete in a training tournament. While the results don’t count against their season, the Mavericks posted the best scores in that trip.

All this success has head coach Nate Owens in good spirits.

“Our season has been going really well since our mid-season meet in early December,” he stated. “There are several women who are currently ranked in Division-II for their individual events.”

Senior Cheyenne Rova is ranked in two different events. She’s ranked 4th in the country in the 50-meter freestyle and 25th in the 100-meter freestyle. Junior Cecilia Hake is ranked 5th in the 100-meter backstroke. Junior Chelsea Calhoun is ranked 25th in the 200-meter backstroke. Junior Taylor Bass is ranked 39th in the 200-meter butterfly stroke.

The young Maverick divers are also ranked this season. Freshmen Jaycie Klein and Lauren Hake are ranked 17th and 18th, respectively, in the one-meter dive.

The Mavericks also have four relays that are in the top-25. The 200-meter freestyle relay are ranked 10th, the 400-meter freestyle relay are ranked 12th, the 200-meter medley is ranked 11th, and the 400-meter medley is ranked 13th. Owens expects his players will post even better scores in the Championship meets.

Now that the regular season is over, the Mavericks shift their focus to the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) Championship meet, which is coming up in a couple weeks, and the NCAA Championship that’s later in March.

“These last few meets against the University of Sioux Falls and the Stevens Point Invite have been good final tune-ups before our team is fully rested for the NSIC Conference Meet,” said Owens.

This marks the point of the season where the Mavericks put their training into hyper-drive.

“After some time at home over the winter break, our team has been training hard during the past month in preparation for the last opportunity to compete this season. We’ve performed well these past two meets considering that we’ve been in a peak training phase and the athletes have been fatigued,” said Owens.

When asked about his thoughts on the upcoming Championship meets, Owens stated “We have a great young team that should take second within the NSIC Conference and be a top-25 team at the National level.”

The Conference Championship meet will be held in Rochester, Minnesota, from February 7-10. The NCAA Championship meet will be held in Birmingham, Alabama, on March 8-11.