The Lady Tiger swimmers will hit the road for a rare midweek Southeastern Conference dual meet showdown with Vanderbilt today.
While swimming coach Dave Geyer admitted the midweek competition may throw the Lady Tigers out of their usual routine, he said the Wednesday start mimics the SEC Championship meet, which benefits his team as the season progresses.
“It takes us out of our comfort zone as far as going out in the middle of the week,” Geyer said. “It gets us up and racing in the middle of the week, which is good for us at this time of the year.”
Geyer said he hopes NCAA Qualifiers senior Sara Haley and juniors Torrey Bussey and Rainey White take the reins as team leaders, all the while watching for freshmen swimmers to transition to collegiate swimming.
The transition looked seamless Sept. 22 against Centenary, as freshmen Megan Cox, Danielle Stirrat and Jesse James swept the top three finishes in the 200-meter freestyle, while classmates Taryn MacKenzie and Rebecca Werdine claimed the 100-meter breaststroke and 50-meter freestyle titles, respectively.
“I’m really looking for some of our freshmen to see how they’re developing in the water as they move from a club-based training into collegiate training to see how their bodies are reacting now,” Geyer said.
Coming off a fifth-place finish at last year’s SEC Championship meet, the team will rely on Bussey, White and Haley, along with fellow NCAA Qualifiers sophomores Amber Carter and Marlene Niemi in what Geyer called a great midweek competition.
A developing program, according to Geyer, Vanderbilt finished last season in 10th place at the SEC Championship, something Geyer and his staff are not taking lightly.
The Commodores are fresh off a trip to Fayetteville, Ark. last Saturday, where they brought home three bronze medals in the 3×100 yard breaststroke relay, 400 freestyle relay and the 400 medley relay competing in the Arkansas Relays.
“It’s going to be a great test for us,” Geyer said. “We’re going to go with pretty much our most competitive lineup we can go.”
