BURNSVILLE, Minn. – The Southwest Minnesota State University women's swimming and diving team was selected to finish sixth place in the annual nine-team Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Preseason Coaches' poll released on Thursday.
SMSU is in its sixth season of competition since reinstating the program in May of 2018. Sixth-year head coach
Marty Wahle has 25 individuals on the roster with six seniors, one junior, eight sophomores and 10 freshmen. SMSU returns 15 letter winners from last season's team that finished seventh at the NSIC Championships with school record 275 points.
SMSU earned 23 points in the preseason poll, 12 points behind fifth-place place Concordia-St. Paul. Augustana, the two-time defending league champion, was the top pick in the poll earning 62 points and six first-place votes. Minnesota State was selected second with 59 points and three first-place votes, followed by St. Cloud State (49), Sioux Falls (42) and CSP (35). Following SMSU, Northern State was seventh (21), while UMary (20) and MSU Moorhead (13) rounded out the poll.
"We are entering our sixth season as a program; this is the largest, and likely deepest roster we have ever had," Wahle said. "Our returning athletes have been working very hard and are eager to start competing again. Our first-year athletes have been doing a fantastic job showing up with great attitudes and are a competitive group of people. We look forward to continuing to grow and evolve as a team and are excited to start competing against other NSIC teams soon."
SMSU sophomore swimmer
Carla Nevi, from Rome, Italy, and sophomore diver,
Aydrial Taylor, from Flora, Ind., were both named an NSIC "Athlete to Watch" this season. Nevi earned All-NSIC accolades last season in both the 100 and 200-yard backstroke.
"Carla had a fantastic freshman year at SMSU; with numerous first place finishes during the regular season and securing four-top eight performances at NSIC Championships," Wahle said. "We are looking forward to seeing even more progress and improvements from Carla this season."
Taylor returns for her second season after a pair of top 20 finishes in the 1-meter and 3-meter diving at the NSIC Championships last February.
"Aydrial is our lone returning diver and is bringing great experience into the 24-25 season," Wahle said. "This past season she competed well on both 1 & 3m boards and continued to add challenging dives to her dive lists. While narrowly missing top 16 points at NSIC Championships, Aydrial has continued to adjust and is looking to improve throughout the season."
SMSU will open the 2024-25 season on Friday at the Northern State Relay Meet, before competing on Saturday at the NSU Triangular.
The NSIC championships will be held on Feb. 12-15, 2025, at the Hulbert Aquatic Center in West Fargo, N.D.
