2008-09 Women's Swimming Outlook

Guilford College starts its fifth women’s swimming season in 2008 and returns four of its top-five scorers from last year’s team, the Quakers’ best so far. Head coach Steve Kaczmarek, the only swimming coach in Guilford history, welcomes seven returning letter winners, plus nearly a dozen newcomers who have experience at the college, high school and club levels. He looks forward to building on last year’s success and moving higher in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference standings.

Five of Guilford’s top performers last year were in just their first or second season of college swimming. With four of those swimmers back, Kaczmarek expects better conditioning, lower times and results to surpass a record-setting 2007-08 campaign. Guilford won a school-record eight meets last year (out of 13) and posted its best results at the ODAC and Atlantic States Championships. The Quakers placed fifth among eight ODAC teams and sixth out of 11 Atlantic States squads in their year-end meet. In addition, six school records fell in 2007-08, including two relay marks.

Juniors Justine Merritt and Sara Stone, two keys to the record-setting 2007-08 campaign, return after finishing first and second, respectively, among Guilford’s points leaders. As the Quakers’ lone juniors on a team with no seniors, Merritt and Stone are also the team’s most experienced competitors. Merritt amassed 94.25 points over eight meets, just a quarter of a point ahead of Stone. She set school records in the 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and 200 individual medley last year and also swam on both record-setting medley relay squads. Stone had Guilford’s highest individual showing in an ODAC/Atlantic States Championship when she took third in the 200 butterfly in a school-record 2:21.53. She also set a new the 100 butterfly standard and joined Merritt on the aforementioned medley relay teams. Stone also swam the individual medley as a sophomore.

Kaczmarek also looks forward to the continued development of Bulgarian sophomore Filka Shalamanova who made a strong contribution in her first season of college swimming and her first year in the United States. She ranked fourth on the team in scoring as the Quakers’ breaststroke specialist. After one season, she already owns three of Guilford’s top-five 200 breaststroke times and two of the top-three 100 breaststroke times. Shalamanova is another key contributor to the medley relay teams.

Sophomore Kelsey Albert returns as the team’s top distance freestyler. Classmate Daphne Murphy also swam the longer events last year. With the graduation of Genevieve Holmes ’08 and Amanda Oehlert ’08, sophomores Naomi Lewis and Sara Waitsman will need to fill their lanes in sprint freestyle events. Guilford will also miss Julia Hohn, who swam the backstroke in six events a year ago.

Two newcomers bring college swimming experience, which should prove beneficial. Junior Kim Abbott swam sprint-freestyle events at the College of Mount Saint Vincent and helped her team place second at the 2008 Hudson Valley Women’s Athletic Conference Championships. Sophomore Cristen Kennedy swam distance freestyle for Monroe Community College in upstate New York last year.

Guilford’s schedule features six home meets, including four ODAC meets. The Quakers open the season Oct. 25 at the ODAC Invitational, a new meet hosted by Washington and Lee University. The team’s lone road dual meet Nov. 8 at Bridgewater College opens a busy November that includes home meets with Salem College and Sweet Briar College, plus the two-day Randolph-Macon College Invitational Nov. 21-22 in Ashland, Va. The ODAC/Atlantic States Championships return to Radford University’s Dedmon Center Feb. 20-22.