Jan. 23, 2015
By Meghan Miceli, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - This weekend's swimming and diving matchup against the United States Naval Academy is more than just the final dual meet of the 2014-`15 season-- it is the last time 14 Nittany Lions will compete in McCoy Natatorium.
This is the second group to graduate under head coach Tim Murphy after he took over as head coach in 2013.
"This group has a willingness and desire and with how much they have invested in this team for them to continue to do it is just a good mark of their character, their discipline, and overall their affection for what they're doing," Murphy explained. "Also where they're doing it and most of all, whom they're doing it with, that's what stands out."
Senior Day is historically the most emotional meet. Each senior passes through a tunnel of created by their teammates where they meet the coaching staff at the end. Next, they are then handed a letterman's blanket and flowers and are recognized for their dedication and hard work invested throughout their collegiate career.
For senior Katelyn Miller, her four years as a member of the team have flown by.
"It's crazy. As a freshman, I remember looking at the seniors and wondering if I was going to make it that far," Miller said with a laugh. "It's surreal that it's finally here. Walking down the pool deck with the whole team on either side of me is when I think it's going to hit me."
Miller is one of the five women graduating from the team, and one of the four seniors who competed and scored at the 2014 NCAA Championships for the Nittany Lions.
Another senior member and scorer from the 2014 NCAA team is Megan Siverling. When asked about what she would miss most about competing for the Nittany Lions, Siverling had a great answer.
"I'm going to miss the fact that something that seems to trivial, like athletic performance, represents something so much bigger than ourselves," Silverling said. "Going a certain time isn't personal, I'm representing Penn State and it makes you better. We're representing such an awesome institution that so many people love and follow so passionately. "
On the men's team, the Nittany Lions will lose nine, including captain Larry Virgilio.
"If you would have told me four and a half years ago if I would even think that I would be swimming for Penn State, I would have called you crazy," Virgilio laughed. "To be a captain at the end of four years, along with Nate (Savoy), it means more than words can describe."
But not all members of the 2015 class have spent the past four years as a Nittany Lion. Ryan Magee spent his freshman year at Maryland before transferring to Penn State.
"Coming to Penn State has been awesome. Being here has taught me the importance of working as one machine not just an individual," MaGee explained. "We really are a second family. There's such a sense of unity here at Penn State, I'm definitely going to miss it."
Team unity is a key value among the men's and women's teams; it is something that has made the group stronger and contributed to their success.
"They each are making or have made are making a contribution to not only themselves but the program," Murphy said. "It's easy to stop doing this because this requires a lot of time, it's a long season but they've kept with it. That in it of itself I admire and respect."
A win this weekend would put the women at 11-1 on the season, and the men at 6-3. But Coach Murphy is not worried about Senior Day affecting the Nittany Lion's performance in the pool.
"When they look up an see their parents, their family, their friends realizing that, this is the last time they're going to be swimming in a dual meet, in this pool - it'll hit them," Murphy said. "But we know what we have to do."
Saturday's meet begins at 11 a.m. with Senior Day beginning around 10:40 a.m. in McCoy Natatorium.