MU men and women’s swimming teams started off the season at the Fairfield Invitational meet. GOJASPERS.COM / COURTESY
Laili Shahrestani, Features Editor
On Oct. 4, the Manhattan University women’s and men’s swimming teams kicked-off their first meet of the season at the Fairfield Invitational, located at Fairfield University in Connecticut. There, they were competing against five other universities including Fairfield University, Sacred Heart University, Southern Connecticut State University and the University of Bridgeport.
The women’s team at MU came in fourth place, scoring a total of 111 points. In first place with 736 points scored Fairfield University, followed by Southern Connecticut State University with 403 points, the University of Bridgeport with 206 points and Sacred Heart University in last place scoring 80 points.
Senior Shayna Millard wrote to The Quadrangle about the season kick-off and how the team felt about the opening invitational.
“We had a great kickoff to our season in Fairfield, the environment was so much fun and it really felt like a community on the pool deck,” Millard wrote. “It was a perfect combination of friendly competition, and everyone had great swims and was super supportive of one another which really made the whole team a great vibe to be around.”
On the men’s side, the MU team came in last place, scoring a total of 137 points, while Fairfield University took home the win scoring 707 points. The University of Bridgeport followed in second place with 481 points, and Southern Connecticut State University followed with 246 points.
Brian Hansbury, the head coach of both the men’s and women’s swimming teams at MU, spoke about his reaction to how the meet played out. Hansbury spoke about how the points do not represent the team’s ability, but rather their work ethic and attitude does.
“The points and the end results don’t really dictate to me and the team how we feel about our results,” Hansbury said. “There’s a lot of individual results. They were positive. There’s some things we have to work on, but seeing their excitement, their engagement, attentiveness and team morale, these are wins.”
Hansbury furthered his idea that the scoreboard does not determine the team’s level of success. He mentioned how the swimming season is long, and so having a meet early in October serves as a benchmark that will be used to help calibrate training as the season goes on.
“Benchmarks are a great way to calibrate training,” Hansbury said. “Our season’s long, and by starting with a meet in October, we get a lot of good racing in and get to try different events and different things that kids do. We gauge our success, not down the points we scored, but with the performance…we focus on doing the right things to be better in February, when we really have it. So coming out of that meet, I’m very excited. The energy was there.”
For senior Jonathan Carsen, his personal goals for his final season include clinching as many wins as possible.
“For me, in the final year of a 12 year swimming career, the goal is the same as it always has been, to beat the people next to me,” Carsen wrote. “It’s about the nature of racing at the end of the day. For some people, it’s the time that matters the most, for me though, I’m smiling at the end of the day when I’m winning my races.”
Throughout the meet, there were a number of individual results that were notable. As for these results, there were fourth-place finishes on the women’s side, and a couple of men who made it in the top 10 in their respective categories.
According to gojaspers.com, “Jaila Williamson logged a fourth-place finish in the Women 50 SC Meter Freestyle event with a final time of 28.20, while Shayna Millard posted a 30.36 time.” Adding on, “in the Men 100 SC Meter Backstroke event, Tristian Ehrhardt and Ibrahim Mohammad cracked the top 10 with finishes of 1:04.00 and 1:05.43.”
Millard, who has established numerous personal bests while with the team over her four years, spoke about balancing athletics with academics in her final year.
“One thing I took away from the meet to continue on to a great season is the reminder of why I’m doing this,” Millard said. “It gets hard to balance athletics with school and your body hurts all the time, but being a part of a supportive community and my coach really makes it all worth it and I wouldn’t trade that for the world.”
With all the individual results from MU athletes, Hansbury mentioned how his team is composed of swimmers who all carry their own skills and expertise.
“We have a real wide variety of swimmers on the team with a wide variety of abilities,” Hansbury said.
Carsen went on to mention the reward of watching his teammates at the meet, and what he took away from the event to carry with him through the rest of the season.
“Just watching our team on deck was great and something all upperclassmen, especially seniors, will take away,” Carsen wrote. “We’ve seen a drastic change in the culture of this program, by no means from a negative place, but a different one, and today was the culmination of that change. Us captains have put a strong effort into really instilling a positive, competitive attitude, and the way people were on their feet, cheering for their teammates, at this level is something this program hasn’t seen in years, and something other programs never see. Then ultimately, individual sport inches more towards a team sport.”
When it comes to the future aspirations of the swimming team at MU, Hansbury emphasized how he is hoping to focus on creating well-rounded athletes. Both the men’s and women’s teams are working to reach their highest potential both in and out of the pool.
“So for us, the season goals are staying healthy, staying productive in the classroom and staying positive with our season,” Hansbury said. “It’s a long season now. Everyone wants to improve, and I want them all to improve. We have to look at this as individual goals and team goals. We’re looking to get better.”