Last year, the AU Swimming and Diving team found itself in an early-season crisis - though nothing as imminent as those engulfing AU's tennis and golf programs - when the athletic department announced it would be phasing out all of the team's 15 scholarships.
The rebuilding process that followed was gradual, one that took its toll on last year's squad. But with the right combination of youth in numbers and experience in key places this year, higher enthusiasm and higher results are returning.
That was never more evident than at this weekend's Patriot League championships in Lewisburg, Pa., where AU took six individual titles, set two pool records and one Patriot League record, and seized three individual honors. Junior Val Fomenko was named the meet's outstanding male swimmer, and freshman Meghan Thiel won a share of the women's award. Thiel also won female rookie of the meet honors.
Overall, the men claimed fifth place, with 324 points, while the women took seventh with 317 points. For a team usually outnumbered by most of its opponents, the results were more than head coach Mark Davin could have hoped for.
"I think we had an absolutely fantastic meet," Davin said. "It's the best meet we've had as a team, in terms of lifetime bests and individual and relay performances, since I've been here."
Fomenko, who is in just his second NCAA season after transferring to AU from his native France, had perhaps the best of those performances. He seized the 200-yard individual medley (IM) title on Thursday and the 100-yard backstroke crown on Friday before closing his weekend with a second-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke on Saturday. Fomenko broke both pool and PL records with his 100-yard backstroke effort, a 49.33-second performance.
In each of those races, Fomenko led a teammate to a top-three finish in the same heat. After needing a season to adjust both to NCAA swimming and the United States, Fomenko erupted this season, and may be ready to reach even higher heights both as a competitor and a team leader, Davin said.
Sophomore Steve Brennan followed Fomenko to a second-place finish in the 200-yard IM, and captured another AU individual victory in the 400-yard IM in 3:59.23. Junior Kevin Falkenstein finished in third place behind Fomenko in the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke.
While Fomenko's experience may be paying dividends now, for Thiel, the trial-by-fire approach looks equally as effective. Thiel captured a title on each of the champion's three days while proving herself to be the league's most versatile female swimmer. On Thursday, she won the 500-yard freestyle. Friday, she dropped down to 200 yards and won again. Then on Saturday, she rocketed up to 1,650 yards and won her third freestyle crown of the weekend.
Sophomore Kaitlin Moughty added depth to the AU women's effort. She finished second in the 200-yard IM to the other women's co-swimmer of the meet, Navy's Aubra Thomas. She also finished second to Thiel in the 200-yard freestyle and snagged fourth place in the 200-yard backstroke.
While quick to praise Thiel, Davin suggested that Moughty's improvement was perhaps even more impressive.
"Meghan did have very good meet," he said. "But Kaitlin Moughty was just fantastic. She had a huge drop (of time) in the 200 IM."
With Fomenko as a returning experienced men's leader, and Thiel and Moughty leading a youth movement among the women, things should only get better, an excited Davin said.
Only three swimmers graduate after this season, and Fomenko and Faulkenstein are two of the team's three juniors. The other 85 percent of the squad, Davin said, are underclassmen, bringing hope that the team can return to competing for PL titles, as it did before the scholarship cuts.
Davin is most encouraged by the improvement of Fomenko's and Thiel's supporting casts.
"We've had remarkable improvement," he says. "A lot of people are on the verge of scoring and are finishing ninth through 16th. Another year, and those are going to be in the top eight."
Meanwhile, Thiel, Fomenko and a few others are left contemplating whether they should compete in their respective national championships, which are this spring. For each, it's a question of how much a swimmer can handle both training and schedule balancing, Davin said.
Judging by recent results, everyone on this once-in-crisis team seems ready to handle a little bit more.
