Three months into Dave Durden’s tenure as coach of the Terrapin men’s and women’s swimming teams, the swimmers are getting in step with his practice.
As Durden has earned more trust from the swimmers, the Terps have begun to race quicker and win meets, especially on the women’s side.
Even with only 14 swimmers and two divers, the women are staying afloat. Last weekend the Terps beat N.C. State on the heels of a dramatic final relay victory.
The 200-yard freestyle relay team of freshman Yelena Skalinskaya, junior Kaleena Laputka, senior Barbara Sumrall and junior Sasha Malanina edged the Wolfpack by under a second to give the Terps the 127-114 win.
Outmanned 22-16, the Terps captured their fourth ACC win of the season by winning eight of 13 events, including junior Gigi deToll’s first individual victory of the season in the 100-yard butterfly since returning from shoulder surgery.
Durden said he likes the extra motivation having a small team provides.
“The nice thing about this team is we’re always going to have to battle,” he said. “We’re always going to have to be tough. We’re not going to blow anyone out of the pool.”
The Terps split their meet in Pittsburgh, losing to the Panthers and beating Villanova.
The men continued to struggle as a team, dropping both meets in January. Their most impressive performance came in the 100-yard breaststroke against N.C. State, where junior Tim Shepard, freshman Eric Cullen and junior Tony Miller finished first, second and third, respectively.
Durden said swimmers on both the men’s and women’s teams have progressed since the start of the season when they were used to former coach Jim Wenhold’s training.
“They were all freshmen to my style and to my program, so that’s a huge learning process for them,” Durden said.
Durden’s different timing, which has focused on peaking in time for the ACC and NCAA championship meets, has Sumrall excited heading into the final stretch of the season.
“Dave had to keep telling us to trust him. Getting pretty close to ACCs last year, we felt exhausted,” Sumrall said. “I can’t wait until ACCs so we can show all the other teams that just because we didn’t win other meets, that we’re still a force to be reckoned with.”
Contact reporter Stephen Whyno at whynodbk@gmail.com.
