In just four short years, the University swimming team has gone from an afterthought to a highly competitive team of swimmers on the verge of cementing themselves as a regional power.
Originally a varsity sport that was dropped in 1986, the Duck swim team was reformed in the 2006 season with only a handful of swimmers, little fanfare and few victories.
But due in large part to the leadership of club coordinator Hank Schramm and men’s team captain Chris Renggli, the Ducks now find themselves as one of the better teams in the West Coast Division.
“It’s done a complete 180,” Schramm, a fourth year junior, said. “It used to be more of a social club where people just came if they wanted to hang out and swim, and now we’re definitely a competitive team.”
But that didn’t happen overnight. The Ducks have collectively spent thousands of hours in the pool honing their craft. Under the watchful eye of first-year coach Errol Rochambeau, Oregon is working harder than ever before, meeting five times a week to practice in the pool and on land.
“The workout schedule is definitely more difficult and more competitive because we’re becoming more competitive,” Schramm said. “We used to practice three times a week and we didn’t have dry-land practice.”
The increase in practice intensity is emblematic of a drastic attitude change among all of those associated with the program.
Much of that can be attributed to motivated student leadership.
“As talented as we are and as deep as we are, there are different skills levels on the team and unfortunately not everyone is as driven,” Renggli, a senior, said. “There have been some cuts along the way. We’ve sent some malcontents packing. There were people who just thought they could show up when they felt like it, and we showed them the door. We expect a certain level of commitment, a high level of commitment, and a certain level of skill. If it seems like you don’t want to be here we don’t want you here.”
After thinning out the roster, the Ducks now have about 35 swimmers on the team. Split up evenly by gender (although the men’s and women’s team do compete together in meets for cumulative scoring purposes), the Ducks have placed a major emphasis on improving team morale this season.
“We really wanted to instill to this year’s team more so than last to be really tight because that’s sort of the basis that you build your relay teams on,” Renggli said. “That’s what you need to have a successful relay team — four guys who enjoy each other and trust each other.”
So far, that combination of better talent, hard work, and commendable team chemistry has been a winning one. The Ducks came out victorious in their first meet of this year competing against Gonzaga, Central Washington, and Western Oregon and are a confident bunch heading into the meaty part of their schedule.
The team will next travel to Southern California for a meet at UCLA in mid-January before competing in the regional tournament up in Central Washington in March and then nationals at Emory University in Atlanta in April.
“Nationals are priority No. 1,” Renggli said. “When we sat down and had our team meetings at the beginning of the year, everyone said nationals was the number one goal. We want to go there, and we don’t just want to go there but we want to make a statement.”
But even if it turns out that Oregon’s rise to national relevance is delayed by a few years, Schramm and Renggli will take consolation in knowing that they helped establish a foundation for successful Duck swimming teams for years to come.
“I want to leave the swim team with a very strong foundation that it can build upon,” Schramm said. “So that the team is set up to build and that we don’t have to replace coaches and whoever steps up next as coordinator can take it and go with it.”
Renggli added, “It’s gotten progressively more and more serious every year and that’s where we want to take it.”
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In its four years, Oregon swimming has become a power
Daily Emerald
December 2, 2009
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