By Dominic LoVallo
Assistant Sports Editor
The women’s swimming and diving team has been preparing to face the Niagara Purple Eagles at its next meet. The Bonnies have been out of action since Jan. 16, when they were able to outscore the Binghamton Bearcats 166.5-121.5.
The team wants to keep momentum going with conference play approaching fast. Junior Bridget Jordan believes effort and the ability to motivate one another as a team are keys to the Bonnies’ success.
“Coming together as a team and racing as we have all year has helped us secure wins,” Jordan said. “Knowing that helps us feel more confident going into meets.”
The Bonnies are going to be looking towards freshman diver Brittany Hart, who won the one-meter and three-meter diving events at the meet against Binghamton, to have another great performance against Niagara.
“It was an awesome win for our girls’ team,” Hart said. “We all performed so well, but as we’re getting closer to conference, we are going to need to make the most out of the practices we have left. That is the way we are going to keep our momentum going forward. The better we train, the better we compete.”
With the team’s meets against Binghamton and Niagara being two weeks apart, practice has been key to keeping the swimmers in peak physical condition and giving them the right mindset for their next challenge. Senior Elizabeth Malone said she likes how her team competes during practice so they are ready for meets.
“As a team, we will race during practices, which keeps us ready for meets because we never stop competing,” Malone said.
According to senior Adelyn Graf, her team’s determination during its practice sessions is what will give the Bonnies the best chance to win meets moving forward, even though the majority of the team is beginning to feel fatigued.
“We just have to keep putting in our best effort and pushing through the last month of the season,” Graf said. “We also just need to stay positive. Most of us are feeling broken down and sore in the water, but we just have to put in the effort no matter what to make sure we are ready at the end.”
Hart feels that the team may want to take a break and cool down, but with how things are going for the team right now, it should keep up its efforts.
“The focus has to be to keep training hard. Eventually we will start to taper, but for right now, we have to give our practices all we got,” Hart said.
Hart, Graf and Malone all expressed their excitement and their readiness to go up against Niagara this coming Saturday.
“Niagara will be a fun meet,” Malone said. “Like Binghamton, we will have to focus on racing and getting to the wall first.”
Graf’s mindset for the upcoming meet against Niagara is similar to that of her fellow senior, Malone.
“We just have to beat them to the wall,” Graf said. “It is not necessarily about going certain times, but trying to go as fast as we can and beat the person next to us.”
Hart said she knows that if she and her teammates give it their all, they can overcome the Purple Eagles.
“If everyone competes to the best of our abilities, we are more than capable of taking down Niagara.” Hart said.
The Bonnies will be at Niagara to face the Purple Eagles this Saturday at 1 p.m. lovalldv15@bonaventure.edu
