Women's Swimming and Diving | October 13, 2016
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – The Women's Swimming team gets the season kicked off this weekend as it travels to the Tootell Aquatics Center to take on Rhode Island on Saturday at 11:00 AM. It will mark the first event of the 2016-17 season.
The Explorers are coming off of a postseason in which they took home the silver in the 1650 Free and the gold in the 100 breast at the Atlantic 10 Championships, amongst many other swimmers reaching the finals of their events.
"We want to make sure we're setting the whole team up for success at the end of the season," said Head Coach
Jamie Platt, who is entering his 15
th year with the program.
Sophomore
Olivia DiStefano leads a returning Explorer class following a first place finish in the 100 back at the 2016 A-10 Championships. DiStefano's time of 55.44 seconds was a personal-best. The Philadelphia native was named A-10 Rookie of the Week four times in her freshman season.
Eva Marie Osterhus enters the season as one of the most accomplished swimmers on the team. Out of Sola, Norway, Osterhus broke the La Salle record for the 200 fly at the Bucknell Invite last season, clocking in at 2:03.47.
Osterhus, a senior, is joined by a small senior class that includes
Kaitlyn Hay,
Julia Mann, and
Tanawan Sukonthapanich.
On the boards, junior diver
Sydney Szopo set new personal bests in both dives last season and secured top-10 finishes in each event at the A-10 Championships. Szopo expects to be one of the more competitive divers in the conference.
"We also have a great freshman class coming in," said Platt. "We have one transfer and four women coming in who will make that immediate impact. They'll be able challenge our top swimmers in certain events."
Platt and the La Salle women have four meets scheduled in the second half of October. Their season runs until the A-10 Championships in mid-February.
