The Ouachita TigerSharks are looking forward to a season of both struggles and successes.
“Our teams motto this year is ‘thrive not survive;’ I think everyone on the team has taken this to heart,” said sophomore freestyle specialist Nick Bass. “We plan on pushing ourselves beyond everyone’s expectations and that includes our own.”
Some members of the team believe that the TigerSharks will be thriving quite a bit this season.
“This team has a lot of potential, and if we put the work in, we stand to surpass last year’s performance in both the dual meets and in the national championships,” said sophomore Matt Pope.
This is a tall order considering last year’s men’s and women’s teams broke three NCAA records in the Division II national championships, along with finishing fifth and sixth, respectively.
But instead of being intimidated by last year’s success, the team is looking to build on it.
“I think that our success will serve as a launching pad to a better team and hopefully a top three spot at nationals,” Bass said. “It’s hard to say which records will go down but I guarantee you will see some new names on that board.”
There is also great faith in the new freshmen on the team to develop into contributers immediately.
“We may have lost a few key point-scorers, but there are plenty of talented swimmers ready to step up and fill their shoes,” Pope said. “The leadership of last year’s seniors has inspired us to push on to greater success.”
The team tested its progress recently with an intrasquad meet.
“For the most part, the intrasquad meet showed us that we are right where we need to be at this point in the season,” Pope said. “It was a good opportunity for us to tighten up mentally and figure out how we need to improve individually over the next few weeks.”
Other swimmers are already looking forward to matching up with the Red Wave across the street.
“I think that this weekends Battle of the Ravine will be a better indicator of our team’s real strength,” Bass said.
The TigerSharks begin their regular season at Henderson tomorrow for the first of three contests with the Reddies, and the rest of the season doesn’t get any easier, according to Bass.
“We have a really tough season ahead of us,” Bass said. “But I think that we’re going to shock a lot of people with how successful we are this year.”
Both swimmers agree that team unity will play a crucial role in the success of the TigerSharks.
