Women’s Swimming
Irish prepare for last home meet after victories at Shamrock Invitational
Liam Coolican | Thursday, January 30, 2020
Notre Dame is preparing for a second consecutive weekend of home meets. Last weekend, both the No. 16 men’s team and the No. 12 women’s team finished first in a four-team Shamrock Invitational. The field featured two other ranked squads in Iowa and Ohio State.
“Our energy has been really outstanding,” head coach Mike Litzinger said. “As individual as swimming and diving can be, they’ve swum and dove like a team, and it’s been really fun to see them come together. At the end of the day, we’re seeing a lot of our training pay off.”
Allison Thornton | The Observer Multiple Notre Dame athletes earned ACC honors for their performances last weekend. Freshman Coleen Gillian was named ACC women’s swimmer of the week after setting three pool records and winning eight of her nine events. She set a pool record in the individual medley, helped set a pool record in the women’s 400 medley relay, and set a program record in the women’s 100 fly.
Senior Erin Isola also earned honors, being named the ACC women’s diver of the week. She was the highest performing Notre Dame diver last weekend, finishing first in the three meter event and third in the one meter.
“The key for us this weekend will be about team depth,” Litzinger said. “Since it’s against multiple teams, it will be an opportunity for a lot of our athletes to get some races in that they normally wouldn’t get to compete in, and also have some of our other athletes that don’t get a first string opportunity to get some swims in as well.”
He said wants his team to continue to improve on their focus, as well.
“The devil is in the details,” he said. “Focus and concentrating and going through your pre-race or pre-dive routine is really important. … For the divers, it’s especially important for them to learn how to hone their focus a little bit better, because as you go through the rigors of a championship level meet, you can’t afford to miss one dive.”
Speed and endurance will also be key this weekend, Litzinger said.
“I want us to be able to get to the wall with some urgency,” he said. “I want us to work on things like kick counts off the wall.”
Litzinger said the team is buckling down for the ACC championship meet, which takes place Feb. 19 through 26 in Greensboro, North Carolina.
“It’s all rehearsal for the conference [championships],” he said. “The ACC is one of the deepest and toughest conferences in the country. … For us to even compete at that level we have to be at our very best at all times.”
The Shamrock Invitational begins at noon Saturday at the Rolfs Aquatic Center.
