Hamline co-hosted the 2014 swimming and diving MIAC Championships last weekend with Gustavus. Hamline’s top scorer at the meet was women’s sophomore diver Dani Waskosky who finished fourth in the one meter as she just missed a third place finish by 13 points.

Sophomore Women’s Diver Dani Waskosky

Before the meet Waskosky said that she was hoping to perform well so that she could have a chance to qualify for nationals.

“I think I might be able to make it this year,” Waskosky said. “It’s kind of my goal, but I also know that the other girls have improved as well; it would just be super fun to see where I land.”

Waskosky, along with fellow teammates, battled injuries throughout the season. Waskosky is currently in rehab for her back, but feels that with her physical therapy she’s been making a lot of progress. Despite her injury, she came off of a record breaking performance where she beat the school’s record for the one meter at the River Falls meet, scoring 258.90 to break the original time set in 1996 at 254.80.

“My skills are back but I’m not as strong as I’d like to be. I’m a little bit worried about competing in the three meter again because of my injuries,” she said. “I’m not super competitive against other people; I just like to compete against myself. If I can beat my score from last year I’d be happy.”

The other qualifiers at the meet held the same mentality while they focused on trying to perform to their potential and keep an eye on self-improvement.

In addition to Waskosky, first-year Jordan Baker qualified for the conference meet. Baker qualified as a swimmer and a diver.

First-year men’s swimmer and diver Jordan Baker

“It’s been interesting, I didn’t dive or swim in high school. I just started. [So] it’s been cool to see the rapid progression,” he said. “It was nice because I qualified for the MIAC Championship in [my] first year.”

Baker said he ultimately decided to try swimming after fellow teammates had encouraged him to do so because they knew he was looking for a sport that would help him stay fit.

“A couple of my friends that were dorming next to me were in swimming and they were like you should try it, it’s a work out,” Baker said. “It turns out it was a really good workout, it’s really hard and you’re in the pool a lot which is nice and not so nice at the same time, [but] it’s been fun.”

Baker explained in high school he played football, wrestling and golf. He decided to pick up swimming this year as another challenge. In January, during the team’s winter training in San Diego, he faced another challenge when he decided to start diving.

Head coach Ryan Hawke explained that Baker was very sick and had trouble breathing while swimming, but rather than sitting out Baker requested to try diving.

“Diving is more of a mental [activity] and it’s not so prolonged endurance,” Hawke said. “He thought with the shorter bursts of energy that he needs he could be able to breathe and a lot of it being out of the water he felt that he could actually manage it without being sick. He tried it and just jumped right into it and took off. It was amazing.”

Baker praised the Pipers’ assistant diving coach Scott Smith for aiding him along his short tenure as a diver.

“I wouldn’t be where I am now without Scott,” Baker said. “He taught me so much in such a short period of time. He’s one of the best, that’s for sure.”

Baker’s performance as a diver, following the training trip, is what allowed him to qualify for conference.

First-year women’s swimmer, Maya Rapp

Another first-year who made her first appearance in the MIAC Championships was Maya Rapp. Rapp explained that she experienced much more than she anticipated this year.

“I trained for events I never would have thought that I would do, like the 200 fly. Swimming for events this year has broadened my swimming, which is a good thing,” Rapp said.

Rapp acknowledged that she came a long way this year.

“I’ve improved quite a bit from the last two years that I’ve been swimming, which is nice because I think it’s a direct [result] from training hard[er] and more intensely for a larger period of time,” Rapp said.

Rapp performed more tasks for the team to compensate for the other injured athletes. Her motivation was simple; she had to step up to help her team.

“Right now there’s only four girls that can compete, so it all makes a huge difference,” Rapp said. “Each point that you can get goes towards the team. You have to hold your own weight and take one for the team even if you can’t swim very well or you’re not very good at it. You just have to go for it because you have to do it for the team.”

Rapp’s focus for the meet was to drop time and see from there where she lands.

“It’s high intensity and a lot different from anything I’ve done before so I’m really excited for it,” Rapp said. “We’ve been training all season so I’m ready, but it’s also pretty nerve wracking because there’s a lot of fast people and a lot of weight to pull for the team.”

Sophomore men’s swimmer Victor Lara

Sophomore swimmer Victor Lara has experience going to the MIAC Championships with his former UW-River Falls team; however, competing in the MIAC still had him anxious.

“I feel really excited but a little bit nervous. I know now as a sophomore [that] I have a little more experience,” Lara said. “I hope we can have a really good meet and all the Pipers are really excited to drop some time.”

Lara said during practice last week the team had worked on technique revolving around starts, turns, finishes and relays because those were some things they didn’t practice much during the winter training.

Winter training camp

Lara said during winter training Hawke and assistant coach Renee Punyko helped them with distance swimming because they had to train in a 50-meter pool.

“Take our pool and double it; and add a few more feet and that’s how long it was,” Rapp said.

She also thought that experience helped them perform better once they swam in the small course pools again.

“We came back and it was so nice. I think that’s a lot of the reason why we thought it was easier,” Rapp said. “Swimming is a big mental sport as well so it helped a lot because we came back and we were like oh, it was so short and it’s no problem it’s a piece of cake.”

Baker said over their winter training he learned a lot about the team aspect of swimming.

“It was a lot of fun, I learned a lot about not only swimming and diving but the team as a whole,” he said. “The basis of how to work together, I mean swimming is an individual sport, much like when I wrestled in high school where you are competing individually. But your individual performance definitely excels or decels a team. A meet can’t be won with one person.”

Piper results after winter training camp

Hawke said after the winter training he was impressed by the performances of first-years Kayla Hennum and Connor Benson that recorded a lifetime best. He was most proud to see senior Zach Lameyer who qualified for conference.

As Lameyer’s former high school swimming coach, Hawke said he followed up on Lameyer throughout his collegiate career. In his first year, Lameyer qualified for conference but missed conference his second and third year. Hawke said when he reunited with Lameyer this year; one of his goals was to help Lameyer reach conference again.

After winter training Lameyer made the cut following his performance at the Carleton meet where he reached the bench-mark time by a second and-a-half. He also qualified again after his performance at the UW-River Falls meet.

“Seeing the excitement and the satisfaction on his face…seeing him qualify in the longest event, and for the event that he takes the most pride in was amazing. It was probably one of the biggest highlights of the season,” Hawke said.

Hawke said their meet at UW-River Falls, their last meet before conference, was one of his fondest memories of the season. Hawke had the opportunity to face his former team on their territory and also see the Piper men’s team record their first victory over River Falls in seven years.

During that meet, first-year Cole Plumber was named conference male swimmer of the week, and was the first Piper to do so in six years.

“It was fun to see those two things happen at the same time and then we also had three more of our athletes qualify for the MIAC meet at that dual meet. We got Jordan and [first-year] Ben Scheel and then we also got Corbin [Conliffe], another one of ours seniors… so that was a lot of fun as well. It was very exciting.”

Lara said one of the things that he admired about this team this year was their work ethic.

“I’m really proud about this group in a way that every day, every practice they try to achieve something different,” Lara said.

Before the season started, the team had set individual and team goals. Lara said most of those goals were achieved much earlier than anticipated so they worked on setting new goals and raised the bar for themselves.

“They were over their expectations before they were supposed to, so that’s one of the good things about most of the swimmers here,” Lara said. “Especially this week that we’re tapering and taking a little less distance. [We’re also] focusing more on techniques and exchanges and all that kind of stuff to drop more time so I’m really excited for this weekend.”

Overall, Hawke is impressed by the team effort and execution this year.

“The team went through a really big transition this year and I’m happy with the progress that they’ve made and [we are] a lot more team oriented,” Hawke said. “They have a lot more belief in the school, the program and the athletic department – they’re more invested. They are here representing the school and they take pride in that. I think it’s been a very positive change.”