Swim Team Catches the University’s Attention

By: Ruth Freifeld

Photos by Unsplash and Pixabay

After winning the Atlantic championship, the coach of Marymount’s women’s and men’s swim teams said that the victory will attract recruits. 

The head coach, Chris Natoli, said that nine men and eight women committed to the school prior to the Feb. 12 victory. Natoli said the win “will create positive traction” for recruiting efforts.
Earlier, Natoli trained a winning team at George Mason University, and said the experience he had meant he was able to provide a winning culture. 

He said, “This year we tried to build off of the successes that we’ve had the
past two years. We set a pretty decent foundation for the way we want it to work. We also had a huge influx of athletes this year… We infused those athletes into the culture right away.”
Different from previous seasons, both the men’s and women’s held morning practices every day where they worked on their speed and endurance. In the afternoons, two to three times
a week, they had a second practice where the swimmers could work on specific techniques or movements. 

Ella DeNicola, a sophomore on the women’s team, said that she would do what it takes to recreate that feeling of winning all over again. She said that she and her fellow teammates worked extra hard this season to win this championship for the first time and she felt that “there was a mix of good attitudes from the swimmers and coaches. Everything seemed to be going right, and it was in our favor that way.” 

As a second-year student, DeNicola said that she is really excited to see her future teammates excited about this win, and she believes that the team is an eye-catcher for recruits, because “no one wants to be a part of an unsuccessful team.” 

In the meantime, she said that she is using this time off to soak in the win after a long season. She also expects to start lifting and swimming soon because she said she feels that they cannot have this feeling again unless they work for it. 

Trevor Cairns, a junior on the men’s team, said that it’s been three years coming for him and he feels special to be a part of Marymount’s first time winning the championship. He said that he entered the season recognizing that there was more depth to the team, which made
them feel closer and made them want to work harder. Cairns said that swimming is an individual
sport, and that you have to perform for yourself, but it’s important to show up for your teammates and challenge each other to be better. 

Cairns said that the victory means the team has…

“a taste of what it feels like to be successful. It’s intoxicating and when you’ve done it once and you want to do it again.”

He also said that for the team to continue to improve, they should diversify. Cairns said, “when you have a team where guys and girls can do many different events and dominate in every single fact, that would give an unbelievable advantage.”