The BG swimming team hit the road for the AT&T Winter Nationals Championships late this past week and are hitting the heart of the season this week.

Traveling to Knoxville, Tenn., the team sent five swimmers into the events, which started Thursday and continued through Saturday. Freshman Maya Skorupski, sophomores Jordan Bullock and Daniela Carrillo, junior Stephanie Boyle and senior Joëlle Scheps competed for the team.

For some of the student athletes, qualifying was trumped by academics. Head coach Petra Martin was pleased with the efforts, though, gone into the events with BG’s fall semester coming to a close.

“We were not really rested for this meet we were just kind of swimming through it just to get the experience,” Martin said. “I think it went pretty well.”

Facing strong competition from around the country, the Falcons were not able to swim into the finals, but relays were a different story. Skorupski, Bullock, Scheps and Carrillo made up the relay team and swam in for 14th and 15th in both the 400 and 200 relay medley prelims and finals, respectively.

Now the team will have a few weeks to regroup until another meet in January.

During the break, Martin said the team will continue training over the break at home and back with the team. There will be a training camp during the break for the team to continue practice.

“There are no breaks,” she said. “They keep on training and getting ready because championship season is coming up.”

When at home the athletes can practice with their club teams to work on training until returning to BG.

The MAC Championships are right around the corner at the end of February and BG still has a few things to work on. Looking to finish stronger in meets, Martin said there are a few things that can be worked on.

“I think there are still things, especially with the younger ones, mentally,” she said. “You know, I think they need to get tougher. They need to polish off on the details of what they are doing; really focus on being focused.”

There is still time to improve, as there always is.

“It’s just about doing the right things every day,” Martin said.

The team will not be competing in the pool again until Jan. 4 at the Tampa Relays in Florida.