After rare break, swimming back in the pool against UMBC, Towson

After a two-week hiatus, the Terrapin men's and women's swimming and diving teams return to the pool tomorrow as UMBC and Towson visit College Park for a double dual meet.

The de facto bye week cleared the schedule for two weeks of intense training after both the men and women fell to North Carolina at home.

"Coming out of UNC, we really talked about [the importance of practice] with the team in terms of having two great weeks leading up to this double dual meet," coach Sean Schimmel said. "The team really responded well. We worked them hard. We're still working them really hard — all the way up until today to this weekend — and they responded well."

The Terps meet a pair of familiar foes tomorrow. The team has competed in a double dual meet, which pits three teams against one another in a single meet, with the Retrievers and Tigers the past two years.

Last season, the Terp men trounced Towson, 225-69, but lost narrowly to UMBC, 152-148. The women won both contests a year ago, handing the Tigers its lone dual-meet loss, 184.5-115.5, in the process.

Freestyle sprinter Matt Gruszecki said the men's team (0-3, 0-3 ACC) is happy to face its first non-ACC opponent as it looks to continue to get faster as the season progresses.

"Well, UMBC and Towson aren't on the same level that some of the other ACC schools are," Gruszecki said. "So it's good that we finally have a team that is not such a powerhouse that we can move some people around on the girls' and guys' side and swim different events and also have competition all around."

The double dual meet appears to be an ideal opportunity for the Terp men to notch their first win. Towson's men's team comes into the meet winless at 0-6, while UMBC's men's team sports a 2-1 mark.

The Terp women (2-1, 2-1 ACC), meanwhile, look to continue shaving seconds off times after a promising start in ACC action and a few weeks of hard work.

"The team has been working really hard," senior co-captain Jessalyn Crawford said. "The girls have been putting forth 100 percent effort into every single practice, and it's always been a really good meet in the past, competitive. And we're looking forward to swimming fast, seeing where we're at right now at this point in the season and doing our best."

The Terp-Towson women's showdown may be the prime matchup of the day. The Tiger women are an undefeated 6-0 and coming off of a CAA Championship last year. The Retrievers' women's squad, like the men, is 2-1.

For Schimmel, a mantra of perpetual improvement remains consistent, regardless of whom the Terps take on.

"The goal is to be progressively better than we've ever been all year," Schimmel said. "And with that in mind, going in there and trying to be the best team on the deck, trying to represent ourselves as the best in Maryland and having that set us up for our Terp Cup [next week]."

castello@umdbk.com