If there’s one thing that St. Bonaventure men’s swimming coach Sean McNamee wants his team to remember, it’s that February is a long way off.
The Atlantic 10 Conference championship is held in mid-February. Between now and then, there will be plenty of people who will remind the Bonnies they have a chance to “three-peat” as champions. But now, as the season opens at Saturday’s Western New York Invitational, McNamee prefers that his team focus on the steps needed to become champions.
“We want to put in as much hard work as we possibly can … gain an unbelievable strength through our weight training program, and just be as tight of a group and be on the same page as much as we can McNamee said of his team’s pre-season training. “We want to make sure we have as few distractions externally (as possible). Being a two-semester sport, it’s a long period of time, so right now we really don’t want to tax (swimmers) too much to the point where you can have setbacks. Last year, we had three kids affected with mono in November, two of which were casualties for the year.”
The Bonnies’ edge starts with McNamee, who is five-time A-10 Coach of the Year. Now in his 23rd season as head coach at St. Bonaventure, the Olean native welcomes back plenty of veteran talent. This year’s squad is led by senior Vatslav Lets and junior Michael Pilyugin, the 2013 and 2014 Atlantic 10 Most Outstanding Performers, respectively. Another leader will be junior Viacheslav Shchukin, the A-10’s Most Outstanding Rookie Performer in 2013. Pilyugin, who swims freestyle and backstroke events, won three individual races and was on three first-place relays in a breakout performance at last year’s A-10 meet.
While McNamee did lose five seniors from last year’s team including record-setting freestyler Jimmy Martin, he is confident that leaders have been identified for this year’s team. There are just three seniors on the roster – Lets, Ripley Danner and Nathan Earl.
“With every group of seniors there’s a different dynamic … on paper, it doesn’t look like they’d be very strong leaders, but everyone has got to find their way. One of the great things about our program because the team does own the program,” said McNamee. “And the seniors, no matter what their personality is, have to be on the same page, and they’ve got to learn to manage the team as a group. So, to this point everything has gone really well. If the in-water performances are any indication, then we’ve been pretty sharp.”
After the Western New York Invitational, the Bonnies’ next meet will also be their home opener, Oct. 18 against Colgate.
College Swimming News courtesy of St. Bonaventure swimming.