Daniela Chapa-Reyes 
Daniela Chapa-Reyes/THE RIDER
Swimming up on a new season, the UTRGV Women Swimming & Diving Team faced each other on Sept. 26-27 at the Orange & Gray Intrasquad Meet and Pentathlon at the City of Pharr-PSJA Natatorium. During the meet, the Grey team defeated Orange 127-101.
Head coach Betsy Graham said coming into the fall season, the team is shaping up “pretty good.”
“This past weekend was a good indicator of how my freshmen are going to race because I hadn’t seen them otherwise,” Graham said. “I knew what the other girls could do, but it was good to watch them race and see how they approach competitions.”
The team welcomes back 17 familiar faces this season. Graham said the girls have had a year under the culture the team is trying to establish.
“I think the freshmen have come in and … they are really bubbly and full of excitement and I think that has lifted us,” she said. “They are excited to be here, they’re excited that it’s a new program and how they can make their mark on this program.”
Diving coach Jennifer Mangum said the intrasquad meet was a good test to see the areas they have been working on during practice.
“Granted, all the finishes weren’t quite there yet, but the take offs, I saw a lot of good things in the take offs in the height of the board,” Mangum said. “Now it is a matter of … let’s fine tune some things and try to make it a little sharper and a little bit better.”
Back/individual medley sophomore Annaleagh Stahl marked a great performance during the meet, coming in first in the 200 and 100 medley. Her team came up short of 1.25 seconds during the 400-free relay, closing up in second.
Stahl said she wants to evolve her technique.
“I want to get my turns down quick, make sure those turns are nice and tight,” she said. “I don’t want to feel super tired the entire time I’m racing, I want to just kind of build into everything that I am swimming.”
Stahl said some goals she has for the fall season is to better her time for the 400-individual medley and 200 backstroke by a couple of seconds.
“The meets coming up is just kind of like working toward that goal,” she said. “Keeping that technique right where I need to be so far mid-season and conference … we can shoot off and have those great times.”
Graham said she now knows where the team stands after the intrasquad meet.
“We’re going to be able to do a lot better this year,” she said. “I basically know where we’re going to be able to put people now and be able to defeat them.”
The team’s next meet is against The University of Texas Permian Basin 11 a.m. Saturday in Midland.
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