Sports Home • Today at BU • BU Home • Alumni • Admissions • Academics

The Bloomsburg University women's swim team, under head coach Dave Rider, has deserted their former training schedule this year in order to improve upon their fifth place finish at the PSAC Championships last year.

“We want to move up in the conference,” Rider said. “We were fifth last year and we weren't satisfied with that. Last year, we had two days a week where we were in the water twice. This year, we're going four days a week, morning and afternoon, though the total numbers of hours is staying about the same.”

With the team's new training schedule underway, Rider said he's already seen progress.

“I think the new training is working,” he said. “I see improvement already.”

Looking ahead to the season, Rider said he is really counting on his seniors to lead the team. Senior Lindsay Wallace, who played 12th at PSACs last year in the 100-free, returns in the sprints while Rider believes Becky Kidingo will lead the team in the mid-distances. Seniors Jodi Kaiser, Kelly Gribbin and Holly Hicks are returning in the long-distances and Rider feels they will have a strong impact on the team. Another pair of seniors, in Katie Jeffers and Becky Witwer, will also had experience to the team according to Rider. Both athletes have qualified for the PSAC Championships in their first three years at Bloomsburg, Jeffers in the backstroke and Witwer in the breastroke.

In the relays, Rider feels it's too early to tell who will indefinitely be on particular teams, but by the end of the season, he thinks they'll be strong in the relays.

“I think we're going to be pretty good in the relays by the end because we're returning a lot of people,” he said. “But I don't know yet who's going to be in some of those spots, the freshmen or the returning swimmers.”

The team of Wallace, Erin Carey, Becky Witwer and Ashley Jones placed third at PSACs in the 400-relay with a time of 3:39.01 last season. Everyone from the team returns, with the exception of Jones.

The team welcomes eight freshmen this year and Rider believes their impact will be felt immediately.

“We need to have almost all of them step up if we want to move up in the conference,” he said.

The Huskies will begin their season at Clarion, Oct. 25. In addition to invitationals and dual meets, the team will also travel to Florida for a training trip over Christmas break. The training will culminate with the Port Orange Invitational, Jan. 7. After returning from Florida, the Huskies will use five PSAC dual meets to prepare for the PSAC Championships to be held Feb. 20-22.

Going into the first meet of the season, Rider is looking forward to seeing where the team stands.

“I think it's a learning process for the swimmers and myself; whatever happens, we'll learn something from it,” he said. “We need to learn what adjustments we need to make in training and how we can prepare better for the meets better.”