The Cougars took nine first-place finishes in last week's competition against Georgia Southern and East Carolina with Matt Sherrier and Pablo Ortiz leading the way on the men's side, and Sarah Boyle and Gracie Herlong winning races for the women. Peter Gibbons took two second place finishes in the diving events.
"We were very competitive last weekend against Georgia Southern and East Carolina," head coach Bruce Zimmerman said. "Most importantly, we improved on a lot of mistakes and corrected some things."
The Cougars have competitors with the second-best times in the CCSA in a number of events including the 50 free (Greg Karel, 21.92), 100 free (Sherrier, 47.89), 200 free (Sherrier, 1:43.60), 1000 free (Josh Shaffer, 10:02.07), 50 back (Mike McCarthy, 25.07), 200 fly (Ortiz, 1:56.81), 200 IM (Ortiz, 1:57.98), and 1- and 3-meter dives (Gibbons). Davidson has posted the leading times in many of those categories, thereby increasing the intensity for Saturday's meet.
"We try to always stay focused on our goal, which is improving from one week to another," Zimmerman said. "But because it is Davidson this week, that naturally increases the intensity. Davidson has always been a rival for us, so I won't have to say much to get the team pumped up for this weekend. This is going to be a meet that will come down to the depth of the two teams. The team that wins second, third and fourth place in each race is the one that will come out on top."
