KATHLYN CRAIGIE

Sports Editor

The Denison swim and dive are coming into the 2016-2017 year after the women placed fourth in the NCAAs and the men claimed the title of NCAA Division III National Champions last season.

Prior to this upcoming season starting, seven swimmers were named to the Division III Preseason All-American teams by collegeswimming.com. Campbell Costley ‘17, Halli Garza ‘18, Carolyn Kane ‘17 and Natalie Zaravella ‘20 received the accomplishment for the women’s team while Kenny Fox ‘19, Jack Lindell ‘17 and Jason Wesseling ‘18 were named for the men’s team.

Kane, a two-time National Champion who earned 19 All American finishes in the 50 free, 100 free and 100 fly, has been competitively swimming since she was six years old.

“I really just want to go out with a bang,” Kane said. “I’ve had a lot of second and third place finishes at NCAAs; this year I’d really love to get first as well as swim all individual personal best times.”

To prepare for the season, Head Coach Parini said the teams are busy training hard and intelligently with ten practices over six days.

“Last year is in our rearview mirror and really won’t have any bearing on how we approach this year. This is a new team with new personnel that is looking to achieve some level of success,” Parini said.

Kane said as a team they want to be competitive and step it up at every single meet this season.

“We have both short and long term goals in mind but right now we are focusing on the process and on our everyday training. If we can do that then the results in February and March will show all the hard work we put into it,” Kane said.

Last season the women went 3-0 in conference beating Kenyon College 150.5-149.5, DePauw University 196-95 and Ohio Wesleyan University 180-86. The men finished 2-1 in conference beating DePauw University 189-104 and Ohio Wesleyan University 180-75. They came up short to Kenyon 196-104. Both the men and women’s team will face Kenyon, DePauw and Ohio Wesleyan again this season.

The Big Red will host the season opener with the Denison Diving Relays at the same time as the Kenyon Relays on Saturday Oct. 15.

During last year’s opener, the men placed second at the Kenyon Relays and the women finished first. The teams are excited to race Kenyon because it’s always a competitive and energetic dual meet.

Photo Courtesy of Alex Caprara/The Denisonian