Bowling Green swimming hits the pool Friday in the Orange and Brown meet to start off the season.

The meet is an intrasquad contest allowing the team to get competition feel.

During the offseason, the program saw a few changes, primarily in the addition of diving. Head coach Petra Martin says she is excited for the team to have this opportunity.

“Obviously with the diving, that should help,” Martin said. “Alex [Gauvin] has his stuff worked to start the program. I believe in him and I think he’s going to do a good job.”

The divers will be able to practice on the 1-meter dive at the meet Friday. The team has three new divers and diving coach, the aforementioned Alex Gauvin.

Last season Bowling Green finished a few matches very close in score, some even coming down to the last event. Without diving, the team had to forfeit 32 points every meet. Even though the program is young, Gauvin says the diving gives the team an extra boost.

“It’s a great situation, because the swim team doesn’t have to change anything and hopefully we won’t have any more neck and neck races,” Gauvin said. “It’s definitely nice going into that last relay knowing that we don’t have to absolutely blow everything out of the water just to win a meet.”

Expectations may be high after finishing third in MAC Championships last year, but Gauvin says he hopes the fans will be patient.

“I hope they all understand that it’s going to be a building process,” Gauvin said. “Everybody is excited to have us here and they’ve made that very clear. But it is going to take time to get to the level of some of the other programs in the conference. Anything worth having is going to take time to get.”

But with the new, comes the old. The Falcons have seventeen returning players this season. Senior Carmen Young says she can see the hard work in the team.

“I think we carried that energy over to this year,” Young said. “Our success this year is just having that team spirit.”

That experience from older swimmers has allowed Martin to let the younger swimmers learn. She says she looks forward to seeing what the team can do.

“You can look at them this year and the start is very different,” Martin said. “There’s much more maturity and focus in place right from the beginning.”

With the newly renovated Student Recreation Center, the Falcons will have seven home meets, two being exhibitions. Starting the year at home, Young is eager for fan support.

“I think we’re going to get a very good fan base this year,” Young said. “It will be really important for us to have that support here to get us hyped up and ready to go.”

If the Falcons get into those close matches this year, Martin says she expects the students and fans to help pull the team forward.

“We are super excited to be back home,” Martin said. “The team loves it. They absolutely love to have people up in the stands just going crazy.”

Bowling Green will open Mid-American Conference play in October, but until then, the ladies are ready for the chance to improve from last year.

“Expectations are always higher every year,” Martin said. “We would like to do better, whatever that is. We’ll find out. I think that if everybody does what they’re supposed to do and then some, it will be a great year.”

The meet Friday starts at 3:30 at Cooper Pool.