It’s the beginning of a new era for the Falcon swimming team.

Today Petra Martin will make her debut as the new head swimming coach when she leads BG into the Tom Stubbs Relays at the University’s Cooper Pool.

Martin is BG’s first new head coach in eight years.

The relays start at 5 p.m. and include relays such as backstroke, butterfly, 4×100 individual medley, 200 and 300 medley, as well as the 200m freestyle.

The Falcons will host the Akron Zips, Oakland Golden Grizzlies and Youngstown State Penguins. With recent success in these relays, the Falcons will have high expectations heading into this event, winning four of the eleven relays a year ago.

In 2008, the Falcons won five of the nine races in the Tom Stubbs Relays and finished in the top three of the other four relays.

These relays are named after the Falcon Hall of Fame coach, Tom Stubbs. He coached both men and women’s swimming from 1963-1981.

Stubbs had most of his success coaching the women’s team as he led them to a 29-5 record, three state championships and a Mid-American Conference championship. He was then inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007.  

This team brings back a lot of talent and experience, with three members owning school records and several swimmers taking part in setting team relay records over the past two seasons.

The loss of Meg Richardson will be difficult, however, as she owns three individual records and was a part of five different relay records.