After a great 2008-09 campaign, Wingate University head swimming coach
Kirk Sanocki looks for more positive results for this year. After a second straight men’s Blue Grass Mountain Conference title and the highest finish in school history at the 2009 NCAA Championships, the Bulldogs are eyeing the top spot.
The Wingate University men’s and women’s swimming teams will look to start the season in a positive manner Saturday when the Bulldogs participate in the 2009 Boo Bash Relays at Catawba College. The men finished first in all ten of the relays and the women won five out of ten relays in 2006, the last time the men’s and women’s teams competed at the Boo Bash Relay meet.
At the 2006 Boo Bash, the Wingate men outscored the competing teams by more than 50 points, while the women won an ultra-competitive meet by ten points. “A relay meet is a great opportunity for first swims…to see where the team is at this point in the season,” Sanocki says. The Bulldogs are looking to make more waves on the national scene in 2009-10.
Last season, the Wingate University men’s team finished first in the BGMC and sixth at the NCAA Division II meet. The women finished fourth in the BGMC and 32nd at the NCAA national championship meet.
Wingate will again host both the team championships for the BGMC in Charlotte at the Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center February 17-20. Last year at the BGMC Championships, the Bulldogs racked an impressive load of awards. Twenty-six student athletes were named to the All-Conference team
Opponents should beware…21 Bulldogs return with All-BGMC hardware in their trophy cases. Wingate again looks to be at the front of the conference pack. Despite the impressive individual performances, the Bulldogs’ primary focus is still for both teams to win the conference crown together.
Wingate qualified 13 swimmers to last year’s NCAA Division II Championships in Houston, Texas. Even more impressive…12 of the 13 swimmers were named to the All-American team, with a jaw-dropping 34 All-American awards brought back to the WU Natatorium. Both teams look to build on past national successes. With the addition of strong freshmen and the return the majority of these All-Americans, a rise in the national rankings looks promising.
With the strongest field of swimmers in the history of the NCAA Championships, Wingate held its own. With strong individual performances as well as relay efforts, the Bulldogs took home multiple top three finishes. Current seniors
Mason Norman,
Kyle Corcoran and
Gus Chagas were the men’s standout performers, winning 18 All-American awards between them. On the women’s side the four women that made the trip to Houston were
Nicole Moody,
Lara Golesorkhi,
Sarah Lawless and
Cheryl Vaccaro. Moody, Golesorkhi and Vaccaro will work hard to make a return trip to nationals this year.
Seniors Chagas, Corcoran, Norman and
Daniel De Francisco make up the core leadership nucleus for the men’s team this year. All these men have multiple All-American awards to their credit and look to lead the incoming freshmen, as well as the returning underclassmen, to higher levels of work ethic and discipline. These swimmers’ impact will be felt in the pool and out of it.
Head coach Kirk Sanocki has added six new men to swim for Wingate this year. Bulldog fans should look for
Cole Dutton , Rory Julyan and
Guilherme Veiga to have an immediate impact at the top of the depth charts. Veiga is a transfer from NCAA Division II powerhouse Wayne State (Mich.), where he was a multiple All-American swimmer.
The women lost only one senior from last year’s team. The rising leaders on the women’s side this year will be seniors
Lara Golesorkhi and
Samantha Vencl ; juniors
Nicole Moody and
Cheryl Vaccaro will also fill leadership roles. Coach Sanocki and assistant coach
Dan Kesler will look to these student-athletes to mentor the younger swimmers and keep the team unity strong.
Sanocki added five freshmen to the women’s roster.
Elly Speer,
Matilda Larsson and
Kelsey Wash will look to make an immediate impact. The five-person freshman class will look to challenge for top placements at dual meets, as well as strong finishes at the championship meets.
Both teams look to be highly competitive at the conference levels. The men will have to contend with conference newcomer Johns Hopkins in addition to Tampa, Washington & Lee and Limestone. The women look to pull ahead of Johns Hopkins, SCAD and last year’s champion Tampa.
At the national level, expectations have never been higher for the Wingate University swimming program. The men look to build on a school-record sixth-place finish last year. The Bulldogs have their eye on the top spot. The women look to qualify even more swimmers to Canton, Ohio. The Wingate women will certainly build on the success of their previous All-Americans.
