The Columbia women’s swimming and diving team has been having one of their best seasons in school history. When trying to discuss success in mainstream sports there are several ways to analyze a team. For example, when analyzing a football or basketball team, the majority of the reason that they are successful is because of their offense or defense. When focusing on a successful swim team, however, there are many components that make a team productive. It appears that the Light Blue has all the aspects of a top-tier team.
In swimming, as in any sport, it is important to have people on the team who are able to step up and contribute to the team. The Lions are lucky in the fact that their entire team is stocked with athletes. “We have a large percentage of the team that both loves to race, has confidence doing so and is willing to put the work in and make the sacrifices required”, said head coach Diana Caskey. “We have talented and hardworking athletes in each of the four classes who are stepping up and getting the job done.” Caskey also mentioned that the Light Blue is lucky because of the fact that all four classes are competing well. She mentioned that other teams around the league have strong new swimmers in the freshman class but are not getting as much production from their older and more experienced swimmers, a problem that has not ailed The Lions.
One example is senior co-captain Amy Krakauer. This season, she has consistently performed well, winning the majority of the events that she races in. However, Light Blue fans should not necessarily be surprised by Krakauer’s performance. “She has had three good seasons at Columbia,” Caskey said, “but [Krakauer] has really fired things up this year and is training and racing even better than before.”
In collegiate sports, losing strong athletes to graduation is one thing that can really hurt a program. Last year the Lions graduated their strongest distance swimmer, Lauren Morford. After Morford left it appeared that the Lions might not have anyone as strong as her. However, the Lions were able to overcome this possible obstacle with the help of an upperclassman, Meg Brown, CC ’09, and the arrival of freshman Abby Reilly.
Brown has been a member of the team since her freshman year, consistently putting together decent swims the past two seasons, but this season Brown has emerged as a major asset to the team. “She has really changed her focus this season and has made a big impact in the distance free events which were potentially problematic events for us back in September,” Caskey said.
In addition, there is Reilly, who has aided the program from the beginning of the season. In the first several meets, Brown and Reilly were the top finishers from Columbia, both scoring points in Ivy League meets against Yale and Harvard. “She [Brown] and freshman Abby Reilly have turned the distance events into a solid strength for us,” Caskey said. This is a strength that should help the Light Blue in several weeks at the Ivy League championship.
For a team to be successful, it is true that they need good individual performances. But just as important as the individual aspect is the overall team chemistry, which Caskey feels good about. “The squad has a good working, training, racing relationship,” said Caskey, “They work as a group or smaller sub-groups and are supportive of each other and the team vision.”
Many teams take several years to define their own vision and team identity, and the Lions too have gone through this period. Caskey explained that over the past several seasons they have been trying to understand certain concepts of their team. Now several seasons later these concepts, as Caskey put it, have become part of the “team fabric.” Caskey said that the team now “accepts and embraces that this is how it’s done.”
One aspect that should not be forgotten is the role of the coach and her staff. If a team doesn’t have good leaders, the team cannot be successful. Caskey also attributed the team’s recent success to her assistant coach, Abby Brethauer. In order for a coach and her assistants to be effective they must have an understanding of the sport and the people they are working with. Caskey and Brethauer appear to have this essential relationship. “I think having Abby here as a 4th year assistant coach has really helped,” Caskey said. “Abby and I complement each other in terms of our strengths as coaches and as people.”
With the Ivy League Championships coming up in the end of February the Lions have to hope that the entire team is able to stay healthy. Thus far the Light Blue has been injury free and not many swimmers have been sick. Although this is another reason they have been successful, committed players, positive chemistry, and solid coaching have led to wins for the Lions as well as worries for league opponents this season.