Occidental’s men’s swim and dive team has maintained a strong start this season, ranking 22nd in the nation and second in the SCIAC conference at this point in the year. With a decisive win over five teams at the recent Pepperdine Invite, the team is hoping to carry that success forward, according to coach Steve Webb.
Assistant coach Jacalyn “Jackie” Hirsty and swimmer Parag Kalay (sophomore) also offered their reflections on the year so far and their hopes moving forward. According to Kalay, part of the success of the team has been the new recruits in first-year and sophomore athletes.
“We’ve recruited a lot of really fast first years, and we’re definitely hoping that we can do better at SCIACs than we did last year,” Kalay said. “We have this one great diver, Dion Holden. He’s a first-year diver, and he beat everybody at Pepperdine by at least a hundred points. Really all of the first years, we have so many new sprinters and people we’ve replaced who left last year.”
Webb also credits the strength of the team to the promising class of recruited athletes. Moving forward, Webb is confident in the growing future of the program through these athletes.
“This is as strong as we’ve ever been,” Webb said. “We brought in a phenomenal recruiting class. Our roster is loaded with first and second-year athletes on the team, so our future is very bright as well. And as far as talent level, we’re going to hopefully break upwards of 15–20 school records, and this is mostly being done by first years and sophomores.”
Although swimming is often seen as an individual sport, the aspect of community is equally important to having a successful team, according to Kalay.
“This team is definitely a lot more friendly than all the other teams I’ve been on,” Kalay said. “On previous teams, usually everyone has just been very concerned with themselves, but at Oxy, it’s a real team, it’s like a family. We always encourage people, even at practice, we’re always yelling ‘Go Tigers!’ and we’re always making it really fun, despite it being rough sometimes. It’s a great team environment.”
According to Hirsty, community support and teamwork are integral in improving individual swimmers.
“This team has a great culture,” Hirsty said. “This team has camaraderie and support, and it’s important to see that on most teams. I don’t know about, you know, the top-ranked team in the country, where it’s pretty cutthroat. But you get a lot of team support here, even though swimming is kind of an individual thing. ”
Team camaraderie is essential, according to Hirsty, but the willingness of individuals to improve themselves is also a necessary part of success.
“To me, it’s most important that they’re there for the right reasons, they’re motivated to improve and they’re open to suggestions,” Hirsty said. “A lot of people are resistant to change and that’s understandable, but sometimes it doesn’t make sense, because if their technique were actually perfect they would be a lot faster. So it’s important for me to have people who are open to those technique suggestions.”
According to Webb, the sense of community on a team culminates in whether or not they are having fun. Athletes should enjoy the sport and want to work hard for themselves and the team, according to the coach.
“Really, it’s all them having fun with it,” Webb said. “You swim Division III because you love the sport and you want to be part of a team. You should be doing it because you love it, no other reason. And I enjoy when they look up on the board and see faster times as well, so it’s also always a goal of mine to help each individual athlete succeed in bettering themselves, and I know if that happens, the team is going to be successful as well.”
According to Webb, the team’s goal moving forward this year is to take things day-by-day and improve themselves. Webb emphasized that it takes hard work and dedication in and out of the water.
“We’re focused on continuing to get better every day,” Webb said. “Every day, we want to keep bettering ourselves in and out of the pool. If we continue to do that, I certainly think the sky’s the limit for this program. The future is bright, the new aquatic center is going to be done by June, and the recruiting classes we continue to bring in are just going to enable us to keep improving and growing each year.”
Hirsty is optimistic for the ongoing season, but according to her, it’s more important for her to see the athletes content with themselves and their work.
“The rest of this season? Well, we all have high hopes,” Hirsty said. “We’ve got a bunch of first years here that we’re waiting to see, and they’ve got lots of potential. Again, we have high hopes, maybe for beating some teams we’ve never beaten before, but actually, it’s more their own self-satisfaction in competition. As long as they get where they want to be, I’m happy.”
According to Kalay, men’s swimming has a real chance of claiming third, which would be the highest conference position in school history.
“I think we’re going to do very well at all of our meets and competition with other teams,” Kalay said. “And I’m hoping we can move up in the conference this year, I think we got fourth or fifth last year, so we’re hoping for that third spot this year.”