The Massachusetts swimming and diving teams have 16 days until the start of Atlantic 10 Championships, and coaches Russ Yarworth and Bob Newcomb intend to use that time to rest up and recover.
Both teams are coming off a grueling two-week stretch that concluded on Saturday with a meet at Fordham. UMass split the meet, with the men eking out a 156-144 win and the women falling, 205-95.
The weekend prior, UMass traveled to Dartmouth for the two-day Ramsden Invitational, and by now, both squads are pretty spent from all the traveling, competing and training in between.
This Saturday’s circumstances were especially trying. The teams left early Saturday morning for a three-hour drive to the Bronx, had only an hour and a half to prepare and warm up, competed and then made the long haul back to Amherst.
“It’s a long day with a quick turnaround from competition,” said Yarworth, coach of the men’s team.
Newcomb, the women’s coach, was pleased with the Minutewomen’s response to their exhaustion.
“We’re in a good spot right now,” Newcomb said. “I was very happy with [our] race performance. Times aren’t there, but I don’t expect them to be right now.”
Yarworth and Newcomb will implement a taper period of training as both teams look to recover and ready themselves for A-10’s.
“Everybody’s on a little different path,” Newcomb said on Feb. 3. “Over the next 17 days, everybody’s just going to be resting at the rate that they need to be able to all get to the meet and be ready to swim fast together.”
“We’ve already been in the first phase of it, where we reduce the amount of hours per week that we’re training,” Yarworth said. “Now, this week, we’ll be looking at reducing how much intensity that we do. With some kids we’ll keep the volume up a little bit, keep their feel for the water, but it’s basically a gradual rest with some peaks where we’re still trying to stimulate right energy systems and get them ready to race in another two and a half weeks.”
Sophomore Seamus Trzewik-Quinn had a big Saturday for the Minutemen, taking first in both the 100 and 200 backstroke with times of 51.22 and 1:51.86, respectively.
Freshman Dias Konysbayev also had himself an afternoon.
“It was fantastic to see his maturation, taking the team on his shoulders,” Yarworth said of Konysbayev, who placed first in the 200 IM and third in the 100 and 200 freestyles.
Meanwhile, divers Maja Boric and Katie Polk continued to be dominant for the women, with Boric claiming first in the 1-meter dive with a score of 284.05 and Polk claiming first in the 3-meter with a score of 289.95.
Maddie Biron had a strong day as well, winning the 100 backstroke and finishing second in the 200 backstroke.
The A-10’s will take place at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio, commencing Friday, Feb. 20 and running through Feb. 23.
Ben Painchaud can be reached at [email protected] followed on Twitter @Ben_Painchaud.
