@NMSU

Swimming and Diving Team season begins

The New Mexico State swimming and diving team began practice for the 2009-10 season Aug. 31, with high expectations. The Aggies have 18 returners from last year's historic squad that finished third at the WAC Championship. The Aggies also added nine newcomers to the roster.

Head coach Rick Pratt is in this fifth season with the Aggies and said he anticipates the success built in the previous four years to continue this season.

"Tasting success last year has made them real hungry," he said. "We expect great things and our goals are high. It is a great privilege to shoot for the top and it is an amazing group to work with."

With the beginning of practice, the Aggies are gearing up for the Crimson and White meet (Sept. 30), in preparation for the season opener, the WAC Shoot-Out (Oct. 9-10). The team travels to San Jose, Calif., for the conference meet that was held in Las Cruces a year ago.

"I have never been so excited about coaching and starting official practices," Pratt said. "Our returners did an amazing job this summer and the freshmen are in great shape as well. I am excited for the level of competition we will have in practice. We have ladies fighting for their spot in our line-up and it will be interesting to see how that affects our intensity."

This year's team consists of six seniors that have tremendously shaped the program, and they are Pratt's inaugural recruiting class.

"The leadership among our group has never been better," he said. "We have six seniors who were the first class we brought in four years ago and they have come a long way, and have a strong desire to finish their career on the highest note.

"We also have a large freshmen class who also are eager to contribute and should mold into the rest of the team early on. We have the ultimate environment for success," he said.

The Aggies have outstanding balance on desk this season and hope to continue to shatter school records after the team broke 17 marks in 2008-09.

"We have some great momentum going into this year and are still riding a big wave. The team feels like we are just getting started and it will be an exciting season," Pratt said.

Written by Tiffany Franklin.