The Ouachita swim team is finishing up its season and beginning to set its sights on nationals. With only a little more than a month before nationals arrive, the team is ready to compete.
“We have very high expectations for nationals,” junior Hal Eubanks said. “We recently set a national record in the 200 medley relay, but we plan to break that and several other national records. This team is made up of several D-1 caliber athletes and we plan to make a statement at the NCAAs. I personally won’t be satisfied if we don’t win at least two relays there.”
He said that preparing for nationals “is definitely a year long process, but here lately the national team has a sense of urgency and excitement that I haven’t seen here the last two years. We know that we have the chance to do something spectacular at nationals, and we are working really hard right now so that we can get the best taper possible going into the NCAAs.”
After beating rival Henderson State last Friday, the team has only one more meet until conference championships and then nationals.
The team members enjoy beating Henderson any chance they get, but are more focused on the big picture.
“In the past years, it’s been a lot of fun winning against HSU, because it was such a close meet,” senior Radu Badalac said. “They lost some talented swimmers last year though, and are working their way up again, so it’s not as important to us as conference championships or nationals.”
The next four weeks of practice are going to be key weeks before the TigerSharks start resting for the NCAAs. These four weeks could be just what the team needs to reach the goals set by them at the end of last season.
“We are expecting at least three national records to be set by OBU at the NCAA championships in March,” Eubanks said.
This means the expectations are greater now than in any recent years for the TigerSharks. The next meet for the team will be at UALR on Jan. 31.
After that they will head to the conference championships and then to the NCAA championships in Houston in March.
