Donald Keough, Special to The Denisonian—
The water is warm at the Trumbull Aquatic Center as the Denison Swimming and Diving teams heat up the pool during their preseason practices.
The team does not begin formal practices until this week, but have already been hard at work.
“We’ve had practices most days during this pre-season this year,” Elijah Venos ‘25 said. “They’re [called] captain practices because they’re run by the captains and they give us the sets for us to work on.”
Venos is now in his third year on the team. His main event is breaststroke, which he’s been swimming since he’s been here.
One of the things he’s looking forward to this year is coming back from a tough meet at the NCAA Divison III National Championships last season.
“I’m ready to get back into it,” Venos said. “Last year was not the greatest ending that we were looking for.”
Although a top ten spot at nationals is usually commendable for most teams, The 8th-place finish last season broke a ten-year record of top 3 placements.
“This year is [going to] be different, because we’ve got a lot of freshmen coming in,” Venos said. “We’re also going into the season excited and ready for a change of pace.”
This year, Denison will also be competing against schools like Ohio State and Xavier, so the competition will be fierce.
“I look forward to our meet against Kenyon the most,” Venos said. “It’s one of our biggest rivalry meets, so it’s always an intense meet”.
During the second weekend of October, Denison will open their season at the Akron Zips Classic in Akron, OH, where they will be the only Division III school, and will be swimming against other Division I schools like Xavier University and Yellowstone College.
“It’s a highly competitive meet,” Coach Greg Parini said. “It’ll give us a good chance to mature as a team again.”
Parini is the current head coach of both the Women’s and Men’s Swimming and Diving teams and is entering his 37th year in the position.
Last year, he led the Women’s team to a National Championship, so he’s now hoping to carry that momentum for both teams.
“Historically, we’re one of the most improved teams in the country,” Parini said. “The challenge this year will be the same as it has in previous years: let’s see how much we can get out of this experience. How fast can we be? How well can we dive? How much joy can we get out of it?”
Heading into the season, Parini views his role as a coach, as well as the role of the other coaches to help direct the energy in the most efficient way that they can.
“Our swimmers are very hardworking and conscientious,“ Parini said. “We want them to get the most out of their hard work, so we want to make sure that we’re providing them with the resources and opportunities for them to maximize their efforts.”
Overall, the spirits of the team heading into the season are high and they’re ready to tackle the upcoming challenges.
“We’re very excited for this year, and we can’t wait to start competing,” Venos said.