Women's Swimming & Diving Starting Season in South Bend
10/2/2014 12:00:00 AM | Swimming and Diving
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State women's swimming and diving team will kick off the 2014-15 season on Friday against the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame at Rolfs Aquatic Center. The meet is set to start at 5 p.m.
"We are looking forward to starting a four and a half month journey that is our season," said head coach Matt Gianiodis. "Notre Dame is a great team and we relish the opportunity to go down there and compete."
The Spartans have 14 new faces on the squad this season. However, MSU does have a large core of returners to lean on and are poised to do damage in the Big Ten.
In freestyle, MSU lost its top swimmer from last year, Summer Strickler, to graduation. But the Spartans have a strong group of returners in junior Emily Parsons, senior Becca Berman, senior Shelby Lacy, sophomore Sarah Love and senior Taylor Folkertsma. Berman held the top times for MSU in the 500, 1000 and 1650 free in 2014. Freshman Cassandra Morse will add depth to the freestyle swimmers at MSU, coming in as a two-time All-American in the 400 free relay.
Leading the Spartan returners in the backstroke will be the sophomore duo of Claire Pilarski and Lauren Kalwasinski. Junior Nicole Huffman also looks to make noise in 2014-15, being the holder of the Green and White's best time in the 200 backstroke in 2014. Freshman Chanel Bonin brings an impressive resume, as she was a five-time All-American and won the Michigan Division I 100 breaststroke state championship with a record time of 54.16.
Shelby Lacy is looking to continue her success in the breaststroke, coming off of her career-best time of 2:19.50 at the 2014 Big Ten Championships. Junior Marina Borri is coming off a strong sophomore year where she broke the school record in the 200 breaststroke and earned an NCAA provisional cut with a time of 2:14.42. Sophomore Kennedy Cutler will also make waves this year, as she posted a time of 2:21.59 at The Big Ten Championships. Freshman Anna Stephens also brings depth for the Spartans being a two-time state champion in the 100 breast.
The Spartans lost three of their fastest swimmers in the butterfly to graduation with Jessica Cutler, Marcella Kupraszewicz and Jessica Wellick all having departed, but have a strong amount of talent returning. Sarah Love held the best time last season for MSU in the 50 fly and 100 fly. Love will be swimming along with Junior Elizabeth Brown, whose 2:00.82 last season in the 200 fly was the best on the team.
The duo of Brown and Borri looks to lead MSU returners in the IM races this year. Freshman Mia Baric also adds power to the Spartans being the silver medalist in the 200 IM at the 2013 Swiss Nationals.
MSU returns three divers to the team for 2014-15. The Spartans will be led by the senior Alison Menzies who placed 11th at the 2014 Zone C Diving Championships and Cristee Cordes who tallied a score of 292.05 at the 3-meter dive. Sophomore Madeline Sewell had a season best score of 303.30 at the 2014 Big Ten Championships.
The Irish will be led by the defending national champion in the 200 breaststroke, senior Emma Reaney. Reaney was also named ACC Women's Swimmer of the year in 2014. Notre Dame is also started off the season under a new coach; Tim Welsh is temporarily filling in for Brian Barnes, who resigned in September for personal reasons. The last meeting between the two schools was Jan. 21, 2012 in South Bend, where the Irish won, 218-82.
For all of the latest news follow the Spartans at msuspartans.com and follow @MSUSWIMDIVE on Twitter and Instagram.
Players Mentioned
