For Saint Leo Swimmers, NCAAs Marks Farewell for Program Being Cut
Saint Leo University’s swimmers were on deck at their conference championships when the email pinged in. It didn’t say much, but said enough to leave them worried.
It was Thursday night, the second day of the four-day Sunshine State Conference Championships in Clearwater. By Monday, the swimmers at the Division II school in Florida would find out if their program would fall victim to budget cuts.
“We kind of had a bad feeling,” junior Isabelle Sering said. “It kind of ruined the mood for us a little, but we didn’t know. They were just saying programs were going to be cut.”
Meetings that Monday, Feb. 21, confirmed the swimmers’ fears, that the program, along with men’s and women’s track & field and cross country, would be discontinued at the end of the academic year. For a handful of resilient swimmers, the NCAA Division II Championships had become as much valedictory as celebratory.
Sering and her teammates will swim this week for the final time in Saint Leo colors, representing a school that has decided to no longer sponsor the sport. It creates some decidedly conflicted emotions.
“It’s super sad,” Sering said. “It’s my third year here, so of course super sad to finish like this.”
Sering will swim two individual events at NCAAs, the 50 free and 100 fly, where she’s seeded sixth in the latter. It’ll be the third trip to NCAAs in as many years for the native of Trelleborg, Sweden. She medaled in eighth last year, one of two medals for the Lions, and was 11th as a freshman.
Freshman Lucas Minuer qualified in the men’s 50 free. The Lions will send a women’s 200 free relay and men’s 800 free relay to the meet, with men’s and women’s competition held concurrently from March 7-11 at Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis.
Considering the cloud over its head, Saint Leo performed admirably at the conference meet. Minuer took home bronze in the 50 free, as did Sering in the 100 fly. She was fifth in the 50 free and eighth in the 100 free. Nino Viallon finished fourth in the men’s 100 back and fifth in the 100 fly, and Vanda Voroshazy was fifth in the 400 IM. Minuer was also sixth in the 200 fly. The Lions finished sixth in the seven-team men’s competition and last among the women.
“It was my first and last one, my last chance to swim with Saint Leo’s in conference,” Minuer, a freshman from France, said. “It was a pretty bad situation. I’m still lost in my head.”
Sering seemed relatively sanguine about the situation, recognizing that others have it worse. She indicated that the team’s track community has taken the cuts hardest.
The cuts affected 25 swimmers, who hail from nine countries beyond the U.S. While Sering, with help from her American roommates, quickly got her head around the peculiarly American predicament, it was more difficult for some, particularly freshmen and transfers new to the program. Sering also expressed gratitude for the way the administration handled it, from face-to-face meetings to aiding athletes who wanted to enter the NCAA transfer portal.
Sering is hoping to find a new college home to finish her studies, and Minuer sounds determined to find another college home in the United States.
“I want to stay in the U.S., maybe not in Florida,” he said. “But it’s an opportunity to see something new, a new coach, a new college, a new place, a new experience.”
“We try to move forward, see this as an opportunity to go forward, test out something new and see how that can help us and see if we can find something we like,” Sering added.
The cuts have added a complicated swirl of emotions to NCAAs. There’s the obvious farewell to their school. But NCAAs also suddenly functions as an audition, a way to showcase their skills to potential new suitors.
“Of course there’s some extra pressure on us,” Sering said. “We want to perform extra well knowing that there’s coaches looking out for us, both there but around the country, too. But I’m just going to try to enjoy it as much as possible. I love the team. … It’s just a different experience we have.”
.jpg "NCAA Division II Coverage - logo"){kind=logo}
This is sad, notice that the sports that were cut do not have balls included with their equipment! Their athletes GPA average will drop without the swim team.