Swimming teams end season with honors
By Quinten Boyd
Skiff Staff

After a season where their home schedule concluded before the end of the first semester, the TCU men’s and women’s swimming teams concluded their season in March with praise and accolades from their new conference and from across the nation.

FILE PHOTO Senior Josh Pipes, who garnered All-Conference USA honors for the 200 fly and the 400 medley relay this season, works on his butterfly stroke during a practice session. The Horned Frog swimming team earned 20 honors at the conference meet.

Without a on-campus facility to practice in, as the Rickel Building was closed in December due to construction, the swimming teams continued to succeed and play at an optimal level as proof from all the honors it garnered throughout the season, despite a new conference and challenges from practicing at local Fort Worth swimming complexes. The teams participated in Conference USA for the first time, but had no difficulty getting making a name for itself in the new league.

The women’s team took home a third place finish, and the men’s team won first place in the C-USA Swimming Championships and Men’s Invitational, held Feb. 19 at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis. During the meet, the Frogs set eight school records.

In addition, head coach Richard Sybesma was named Coach of the Meet.
Thanks to their strong performance, 20 Frog swimmers were recognized by C-USA.

For the season, the men finished with a record of 9-2. The women ended their spring season at 10-3.

Although the men’s team took home first place, they were not officially recognized as conference champions. C-USA does not field enough men’s teams to hold a conference championship meet, Sybesma said. However, this point is moot to Sybesma.

“The conference doesn’t have enough teams for men’s swimming to be recognized, but the guys proved that they are the best in the conference,” Sybesma said.

Although the conference did not recognize the victory by the men’s team as a conference crown, the Frogs proved their strength by dominating the meet from beginning to end and winning the meet by nearly 200 points, prompting the conference coaches to name 12 swimmers from the men’s team to the Coaches’ All-Conference team.

In addition to these honors, the women’s team was recognized as Academic All-Americans by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America for the 19th consecutive semester. The team was only one of 179 college teams nationwide to be honored by the organization.

To be considered for the award, a team must have a combined grade-point average of 2.8. The Lady Frogs had a combined GPA of 3.14, giving them a ranking of excellent.

“This is a phenomenal accolade for the team,” Sybesma said. “They really do the term ‘student athlete’ justice. They are serious athletes in the pool and serious students in the classroom.”

Quinten Boyd
q.m.boyd@student.tcu.edu

credits

TCU Daily Skiff © 2002