A perfect 5-0 start, including a national ranking among other Division I swimming powerhouses, has highlighted the Wright State men’s swimming and diving teams season in 2013.
After a dominating 224-73 win over Ashland on Oct. 12, the Raiders men’s team claimed its fifth team win of the year, winning 11 events in total.
For coach Kyle Oaks, his team’s performance, while encouraging, comes as no surprise.
“I think we’ve just been following simple rules,” Oaks said. “My expectations for them were to just swim the best that they could. We don’t talk a lot about the competition we face, we just talk about trying to do the things we can the best that we can.”
The Raiders were ranked No. 24 in the collegeswimming.com Endless Pools Top 25 on Oct. 10, which was based off of the team’s performances for meets between Sept. 9 and Oct. 6. WSU was dropped from the rankings in the latest poll ending on Oct. 20, but sophomore Wiehan Boshoff said that the recognition his team received provided an emotional boost to all of the men’s swimmers.
“Being mentioned among the top teams in the country…it really feels special because I think it brings us closer as a team,” said Boshoff, a native of South Africa. “We never think that we’re as good as we are. We always have a little bit of doubt in ourselves, but when we see Wright State as one of the Top 25 teams in the country, it really lifts our spirits.”
That recognition has translated to a steadfast attitude during practices, where Oaks said his swimmers have learned to forge ahead and maintain their high level performances.
“Some days can be tougher than others. It’s not like everyday everybody shows up thrilled to bust their butt,” Oaks said. “If we only got better by training on the days when we felt great, that’d be awesome, but, unfortunately, that’s not true. You have to train on the days when you don’t feel good and learn how to respond to that. They do a pretty good job with that.”
To keep his swimmer’s minds focused on a one-day-at-a-time mentality, senior Greg Evershed said his teammates have turned to Oaks for guidance.
“I think Kyle [Oaks] has been a really big help on that. Every time we get a big win, he just calms us down afterwards,” Evershed said.
WSU competes against in-conference opponent Green Bay tomorrow night at 5 p.m. at the WSU Natatorium.
