Swimming and diving hits the pool for Terrapin Cup

After practice most Monday nights, Mitch Challacombe, a senior on the Terrapin men's swimming and diving team, trudges back to his dorm, utterly exhausted after another grueling training session.

But this Monday evening, the pensive co-captain wasn't tired at all. With the start of the Terrapin Cup today, Challacombe and the Terps know they need all the rest they can afford in preparation for the team's fall championship meet.

Both the men's and women's teams will look to defend last year's first-place finishes as six men's and seven women's squads visit College Park for the three-day competition.

"Terp Cup is the real focus of our fall, and it's kind of at the pinnacle of our training," coach Sean Schimmel said. "It tops off our fall competitions, so we're looking to be really good."

Fresh off of a pair of double dual-meet wins against Towson and UMBC last weekend, the Terp women (4-1) are well positioned to both win their third straight Terrapin Cup and improve their seeding for ACC Championships, where swimmers are seeded based on their fastest times during the year.

"I know that other ACC teams may not be here, but you know they go home and look at the results every night and say, ‘Woah, look at what Maryland's doing,'" junior swimmer Ginny Glover said. "And we just want to make a big splash in the ACC right now, and we're really excited to get some swimming done this weekend."

Formatted as a championship-style competition, the Terrapin Cup serves as an opportunity to participate in a meet configured in the same manner as ACC Championships and NCAA Championships.

The Terp men (1-4) should have considerably more depth than they did Saturday. All of the swimmers who were unable to compete as a result of at least one violation of team policy are expected to compete this week, according to Schimmel.

Swimming, as senior Matt Gruszecki explained, is a delayed satisfaction sport, meaning it takes weeks and months of painstaking conditioning until the payoff comes to fruition.

"I just said this a couple of minutes ago in a meeting with the team," Challacombe said Monday. "[Terrapin Cup] is a reward for the hard training we've done so far, and it's kind of a glimpse of the reward we're going to get in February."

The men's and women's teams of Towson, Johns Hopkins, Connecticut, William & Mary, Villanova and West Chester will compete in the meet. The Richmond women's team is also challenging for the Terrapin Cup crown.

"We've gone against some of these teams in the past, whether in a dual meet or in an invite situation," Schimmel said. "We're looking for [the Terrapin Cup] to be a great competition."

Swimming prelims begin at 10 a.m. and final heats start at 6 p.m. each day. Diving prelims kick off at 1 p.m., while final sessions will take place during swimming finals at Eppley Recreation Center.

castello@umdbk.com