In 2014, the Virginia men’s swimming and diving team had its worst finish at the ACC Championships since 1997. Placing fourth, the Cavaliers reached a low.
However, it wasn’t until the following year that Virginia hit rock bottom. The Cavaliers finished in eighth place — the worst performance at that meet in program history.
With Virginia coach Augie Busch making the decision to suspend five of his top swimmers early in the 2014-15 season due to allegations of hazing — causing two of them to quit — the Cavaliers went 1-5 in head-to-head matchups. This resulted in Virginia stumbling into the ACC conference championship.
“I just didn’t have them ready to go last year,” Busch said. “There was a lot of adversity … we lost our oldest and most talented guys early in the year. That definitely put us behind the 8-ball.”
Heading into the ACC Championships in Greensboro, N.C. this Wednesday to Saturday, the Virginia men (3-5, 1-3 ACC) are looking to regain their footing and redeem their performance from last year.
“Coming into this year and through the summer, we knew we had to work really hard and bring the team to a new level to do better this year at [the ACC Championship],” junior Matt Lockman said.
Lockman, along with senior Eric Holden, served as captains for the team this year. While there was a lot of tension on the team last year, this year, the captains have provided stronger leadership, Busch said.
“[The team morale] has been by far the best in my three years on the men’s side,” he said. “I think the coach-athlete relationship is at a much more positive place then it was last year.”
For Holden, although swimmers compete individually, teamwork is essential in achieving success as well, he said.
“All the guys have done a really good job supporting each other and working hard in and out of the water to get us where we are,” he said.
This season’s results in the regular season, although an improvement from last season, haven’t been ideal. While the team cracked the CSCAA Top 25 at one point, its only ACC victory came against Notre Dame, and placed in the middle of the pack of the one invitational it competed in.
“We’ve learned a lot through all those meets,” Lockman said. “All those things that we learn will help us at [the ACC Championship].”
At the ACC Championship, Virginia will face five teams that are currently ranked in the Top 25 – NC State, Louisville, North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Duke. However, facing three of those five teams in the regular season will help Virginia gauge their competition well, Holden said.
For this meet, Busch has a different coaching and training philosophy than he did for the Virginia women’s swimming and diving team.
Qualifying 10 swimmers to the NCAA Championships before the ACC Championship, many of the Virginia women did not hit their taper before the tournament — this meaning they participated in rigorous workouts going into the meet. Busch has had every swimmer hit their taper on the men’s side, except for the team’s only qualifier for the NCAA Championships, senior Yannick Kaeser.
After this tournament, Busch hopes to qualify more swimmers and divers to the NCAA Championships and for everyone to try their best, he said.
“The goal is to get as high of a percentage of life-time bests as we can possibly do,” he said.
There is a lot at stake for the Virginia men at this tournament: pride, redemption and getting the program back on track. Holden is optimistic about the team’s chances heading into what may be his last meet.
“People have been putting in the work all year, and it will be really excited to see what people can do,” he said. “It’s one last time that I’ll be able to swim with this band of brothers that I’ve swum with all year.”
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