With graduation having taken the core of The College of Wooster's men's swimming program from the last four seasons, eighth-year head coach Rob Harrington concedes that the Fighting Scots will be in a rebuilding mode during 2010-11. In spite of that, he believes Wooster can end up in the same spot it was last February – sixth-place at the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships.
The Scots will have to find a way to get there without the talented Eric Babbitt, Logan LaBerge, and Ryan Radtke, a trio who finished their careers with a combined 25 top-10 NCAC performances in individual races, including seven last season.
"We did graduate a significant amount of talent," Harrington agreed. "We have a lot of hopefuls, people who show a lot of potential. I don't think you can count us out by any means. I think we can get to a similar position in the conference to where we were last year, but it will take a lot of work to get there. We're in a rebuilding process."
Some of the top performers in the pool are expected to be seniors Brett Dawson, Adel El-Adawy, and Brendan Horgan, as well as sophomores Alex LaJoie, Imre Namath, and Peter Parisi. Dawson and El-Adawy should form a strong 1-2 punch in the backstroke events, once the latter recovers from a shoulder injury. Dawson came in 11th at the NCAC's in the 100 (53.04) and 12th in the 200 (1:58.57), with El-Adawy narrowly behind in 14th (53.72) and 17th (1:56.89). Horgan will anchor the butterfly races, while looking to improve upon 19th- and 22nd-place conference showings in the 100 (53.64) and 200 (2:04.06), respectively.
LaJoie, who also is recovering from a shoulder ailment, and Parisi may be the most talented returnees. LaJoie capped his freshman season in fine form, highlighted by advancing to an NCAC championship heat (top-eight) in the 400 IM (4:20.82). Displaying versatility, he also was 15th in the 200 fly (2:01.18) and 17th in the 500 freestyle (4:49.12). Parisi is being looked at for a breakout year after touching 17th at NCAC's in both the 100 fly (52.83) and 200 IM (1:58.62) as well as adding a 19th in the 100 breaststroke (1:00.45), while Namath has "shown a lot of potential," according to Harrington.
Additional regular scorers will likely include junior distance specialist Kevin Audet, sophomore butterflyer Peter Hause, and sophomore breaststroker Joe Wilch, while distance freestyler Tre Arbulu headlines the seven-member freshmen class.
In the diving well, Wooster welcomes back the reigning NCAC Diver of the Year in Luke Knezevic, who swept the conference titles on both the one-meter (449.70) and three-meter (455.95) boards, however, the junior standout who holds aspirations for qualifying for the NCAA Div. III Championships is studying off-campus this fall. He's expected to return next semester, which will give the Scots a significant boost, as will freshman diver Ryan O'Dell.