ALLENDALE, Mich. — Grand valley men’s swim and dive have a chance to win 10 straight conference tournaments next weekend. They’re also sending several Lakers to the Division 2 national championships in March.
“We have just about a week left until the conference championship and this is really the time to really focus in and rest and get our bodies ready to compete. We’re really excited to see what we can do on the boards and in the pool,” said Andy Boyce.
Both the men’s and women’s teams are undefeated this year and they rounded out their final home meet two weeks ago by breaking 10 pool records against Davenport.
“It was a really fun meet, there was a lot of celebrating. Everyone swam really well and it was good for being out last dual-meet before conferences,” said Eric
“Obviously the whole season has been pretty strong. There’s been a lot of people stepping up this semester,” said Lucy Hedley.
Sophomore Lucy Hedley was a part of the 400 medley relay that Brooke one of the 10 records. Her parents are flying all the way from New Castle, England to watch her swim next weekend.
“I’m excited for them mostly because they’ve always supported me and for them to experience what I’ve experienced, that’ll be exciting. I’d like to get back to where I was for the 200 meter freestyle at the start of the semester. I’ve been a little off since then. But with some hard training and then a bit of a taper, I’m hoping to get back down to there, said Hedley.
Eric Hieber is a senior distance free swimmer who already holds a national title in the 1,560. He has plans to go back to back and if he does, he’ll be just the second Laker to do so.
“That’s the goal. Obviously I just want to go out there and do the best I can and win again,” said Hieber.
GVSU already have several athletes that have qualified for nationals but they could have even more if they swim well at the GLIAC finals. They hope that the time gap between conferences and nationals will allow for their best training.
“So we have almost a month to build back up again and tapper off ahead of the national championships. We have large group that is in contention to qualify for the national championships this year. Between the men and the women i’m expecting almost 30 this year. 10 in a row would be great but we just treat it like another conference championship. We do as much as we can to score as we can on the men’s side and on the women’s side as it comes up. It would be two in a row for the women if we can do that this year but ten straight would be great for the men and just treat It like another conference championship,” said Boyce.
The Lakers will host the GLIAC championship start on February 9th at the Holland Aquatic Center.
