Bowling Green swimming and diving faces its first away test of the season this weekend.
The team heads to Oakland for a Saturday meet to face the Grizzlies and Mid-American Conference rival Eastern Michigan.
The Falcons are 1-0 so far this season, coming off of a win against Ball State last month. Eastern Michigan is undefeated on the season at 3-0, while Oakland sits at 7-1 overall.
Head coach Petra Martin said she has seen progress in the team since the last competition.
“I think we are doing better with racing strategies,” Martin said. “We are definitely starting to pick up a little bit more speed as we move through the last couple of weeks. They are doing a much better job at paying attention to details.”
Martin expects the traveling to be a switch for the athletes, especially the younger swimmers who have yet to experience road meets.
“After you sit on the bus sometimes for a while it takes the body time to get into the motion and get going and everything,” Martin said. “We are going to have to make sure we do a good job with that.”
To prepare, Martin said she tries to recreate the scenario that may be felt after sitting on the bus before a big meet. The team will sometimes lift weights before hitting the pool to create fatigue.
The away meet gives the Falcons an opportunity to get used to traveling going into tougher meets. Martin said it will be a tough meet against Eastern Michigan and Oakland, especially with the added travel on top.
“Eastern has been swimming really well,” Martin said. “They have beat everybody in the MAC so far and they are tough in dual meets. You know, Oakland swims really well. We’ve had some pretty tight meets with them as well in the past couple of years. It’s gong to be a battle but we’re excited.”
Along with swimming, diving is making some progress in terms of difficulty. Dive coach Alex Gauvin said the women have been working on flips that fans can expect to see in upcoming meets.
“I have been very, very happy with the progression,” Gauvin said. “We have a couple new dives from the 3-meter and 1-meter that we’re going to be doing. Every week we’re going to be adding something new. I know where I want them to be by the end of the year and we’ll get there.”
Coming from Eastern Michigan’s program, Gauvin said that experience has helped him build this program from the beginning.
“Obviously we’re different and we want to be different,” Gauvin said. “I learned a lot while I was there and I’m going to take everything that I learned that works, that I’ve seen to work, and I’m going to do it here.”
Bowling Green has won 21 out of its past 24 races.
The Saturday meet starts at 1 p.m. at the Oakland Aquatic Center. The Falcons will be on the road until mid-January.
