Swim and Dive holds Green and Gold meet

Members of the Cal Poly swimming and diving team prepared for the upcoming season and relived a bit of the past over the weekend.

The current team participated in the Green and Gold intersquad meet Friday afternoon while swimming and diving alumni returned to Cal Poly Saturday morning for the annual Alumni Meet.

“This is an exciting year for the team,” said swimming and diving coach Tom Milich. “We have so many new faces.”

For Friday’s meet the team was split into two co-ed teams, with each side representing a school color, Green or Gold. The Green team won with a score of 267 to Gold’s 230.

The meet consisted of 28 events and was a chance for the team to compete against each other before the beginning of the season.

The official start to the season begins Oct. 27 with the Malibu Invite, hosted by Pepperdine University.

Saturday’s Alumni Meet brought close to 30 former team members back to Cal Poly. The meet allows the new swimmers to have a friendly competition with those that have built the team up to this point.

“It’s a big reunion. I’ve seen people I swam with during all parts of my swimming career. It’s fun,” said alumni swimmer Shawn Hussey. “It’s a good chance to catch up, mingle and network.”

Although some cheating was involved on the part of the alumni, it was all in good fun.

The meet had 28 events and paired alumni against current swimmers. The alumni showed off their talent, but were unable to pull out a win. The present team beat the alumni 322 to 147.

“The alumni are very impressed with this year’s freshmen. There is a lot of talent,” said Hussey.

Many alumni donate money to the swimming and diving program and come back to check out the new talent and see how the program is evolving.

“It’s something you invest so much time in. You want to make sure it’s moving forward,” said Hussey.

There have been a lot of changes to the program over the years. The team used to have more returning swimmers than rookies, but new members are now the majority.

Milich sees a bright future ahead for the upcoming season, which runs through February. Many talented swimmers have been recruited to Cal Poly. This is Milich’s second season coaching the team.

The team is working toward scoring more points in this year’s Big West Championships, according to Milich. The conference is being held at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach Feb. 20 through Feb. 23.

“We are going to do better this year. We have good new talent. Returning people will drop more time,” said women’s team captain Stacey Sorensen.

Sorensen holds three individual school records, which include the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle, 200- yard freestyle and was a member of the school record-holding 400-yard freestyle relay.

“This is the best beginning of a season that I’ve seen in five years,” said current men’s team captain Kevin Michelmore. Brent Summers is this year’s other men’s team captain.