Oct. 2, 2015
By Michele Jaroszewski, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" The men's and women's swimming and diving teams are heading to Atlanta for their first tri-meet of the season against Georgia Tech and Liberty on Friday. The Nittany Lions will stay in Atlanta and continue their season-opening weekend with a dual meet against Emory on Saturday.
The offseason was full of pre-Olympic trial hype with swimmers such as Katie Rowe and Tim Maurer, with both earning bids for the men and women's U.S teams. Women's captain Alyson Ackman competed in the 2015 Pan American Games this July, helping her native country Canada win the bronze in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay.
"Pan American games was amazing," Ackman said. "To hear Canada cheering for us was just absolutely thrilling and motivating for this year coming up for 2016."
Other Penn State swimmers competing in the games were Melissa Rodriguez and freshman Monika Gonzalez-Hermosillo, who swam for Mexico.
"I think it's great to know that all of us can represent different countries on a bigger field, but can still represent Penn State," Ackman said.
While the summer games helped Ackman prepare herself for upcoming competitions, being a captain this year is a whole other role. Along with co-captain Jon Seiferth, the senior swimmers are ready to fulfill their leadership roles by helping teammates out, welcoming new swimmers and new assistant coach Matt Hurst. Hurst joined the Nittany Lions this summer after spending 12 years with Southern Connecticut State.
"It's going to be a challenge being a leader of 30-some people, especially with the boys included," Ackman said. "I think my leadership role doesn't have that much more of an impact of anyone else's role on the team. I think it's really important for me to take that extra stride to make sure everyone communicates and is on the same page."
"Leadership and prior knowledge, incoming freshman have a lot of questions and I'm always trying to help them out as much as I can," Seiferth said.
The Nittany Lions have a total of six incoming freshman for the women's team. Along with Gonzalez- Hermosillo, other international students include Aleksandra Tulacz, who was born in Gdynia, Poland.
Upcoming meets that the swimmers are looking forward to are tri-meets, including one against Big Ten rival Michigan and Virginia. Seiferth said there is more motivation this year to try to change the finishing scores and have an overall improvement in competing.
"I'd like to see our place in the Big Ten go up," Seiferth said. "There is motivation to do a lot more and try harder to get that higher place. "
The Nittany Lions will have their first home meet against Virginia Tech Friday, Oct. 16 at 4 p.m.