LA JOLLA, Calif. – The UC San Diego swimming and diving team has been busy training in the fall quarter. The team complied with state, university and local COVID regulations while at practice. We chatted with Head Coach
Marko Djordjevic about the past quarter.
Q: How was having the team back after several months apart?
Emotionally, it was great. I think selfishly for myself, it was great to be around them and the energy our Scholar-Athletes can bring. I enjoy being with the team, they are like family. I think it was good for them to get together again. I think even with these restrictions, they enjoy spending time together as much as possible. It is different. Not having clear directions about the season and what we can expect can be a little uncomfortable. There's a lot of restrictions in terms of training, what we can do, lifting, etc. Luckily, with our facilities and the two pools and all the water time we get, we can do these limited hours and follow all the directions without creating any problems. But not having meets on the schedule is a little bit of an uncomfortable situation especially for the seniors. It's even more for the freshmen as they are going through that confusing phasing going from high school to college and this is definitely not the experience they should be having.
Q: With swimming being a low risk sport in terms of COVID, what sort of modifications did you have to make to practice?
With our facilities and everything we have, not many since we have enough space to accommodate everyone. We are following the USA guidelines for safely training in the water and how many people in a lane you can have. It is a little different not being able to use the locker rooms or having limited use so the process of getting in and out of the pool is different. We are trying to create the space to reintroduce our activation routine that prevents injuries. It's really hard to do now because they can't share the bins or equipment.
One of the biggest challenges is not being able to do the typically weights and dry land workouts the way we are used to although the APU is doing a great job maintaining that through APU classes. I think we are maintaining very well. To a certain point, swimming never really has a break because it is a year-round sport. I think this is going to be a good time to have some extra rest, reheal or step away from some over-usage. In terms of training, I don't see this as a big loss. In terms of times, it's a problem.
Q: Did you have any sort of emphasis or team motto for the fall?
Well "Keep walking" was our motto from last season and obviously was the last year of Division II. We felt we had a lot to give and show to the Division II world and wanted to finish our era with something big at Nationals. The motto was keep walking and do your job. And season ended the way it ended. Now when we put it all in perspective, what is really important and what we can do, it's just smaller steps. Just one step at a time and see what the future holds for us. Try to control what we can control and try not to be stressed out too much.
Q: How do you think it helped the athletes mentally being about to swim with their teammates?
I think it's a huge help. Those couple months we were separated, and we were spending hours behind the screen doing zoom meetings was really difficult. I could tell through conversations and energy. I could read from the team and individual conversations that they were really stressed out. It's really hard for young scholar-athletes and people to understand the importance of restrictions. And for some of the older returners being used to a routine, this is a different world. This is a different campus than it was eight months ago. Just the fact we can't have team bonding moments, it's different. But on the other side, what we are doing is better. Keeping athletes from their routines, it hurts mentally. While sports can be overwhelming and make their schedule difficult, I think the athletes get use to that and that routine.
Q: A couple swimmers swam in the US Open in November. What was it like for them to compete again? (Note: the US Open was an optional meet with Triton Athletes representing their home clubs)
Eight of our swimmers choose to attend that meet. I encouraged them to do that. Just following Swimming World, outside of the USA, people are still swimming pretty fast. Swimming is a sport we don't necessarily have enough rest during the year and maybe being forced to take some rest was not a bad thing for everyone. And I think eight of our athletes performed really well. They swam right around their best times. We had
Ivan Kurakin break the school record in the 100 freestyle. For those eight, even more for the rest of the team, I think it was a great moment. We haven't competed since March and we may not be able to compete for another month or two. I think some of them may have lost the confidence because part of swimming training is racing. It's really hard to race every day in practice and you need a challenge and a goal. I think the performance of our eight athletes at that level was really encouraging and I think if we had that meet now more would choose to try it.
Q: What's the focus heading into the winter quarter?
Obviously, the focus this year before everything happened was to slow down the pace. We are starting our four-year reclassification where we cannot attend NCAA's. We do have the National Invitational Championship that is a perfect meet for us because it's a little fastest than Division II Nationals and a little slower than Division I Nationals. Also, the focus is to see how high we can go in our conference. We want to build a program that is continuously sends swimmers and divers to NCAA's. Now, that has to be adjusted. I think right now we have to be flexible and adjust to what is available for us to do. There is no goals but it's hard to plan when we don't know what's happening. We will take the opportunity that our pool is open and we can work on some technical things. If a meet happens, I know the team will be excited and we will be ready to race.
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program begins a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide more than 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. In addition, 83 Tritons have been named Academic All-Americans, while 37 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions. For more information on the Tritons, visit UCSDtritons.com or follow UC San Diego Athletics on social media @UCSDtritons.
