Think about it.

What does 17 freshmen swimmers, four freshmen divers, plus many recruiting visits equal?

Well, for Syracuse swimming coach Lou Walker, it meant lots of exhausting car rides.

‘It’s an amazing thing we went through last year,’ Walker said. ‘Kids just kept saying, ‘I wanna come, I wanna come.’ ‘

So Walker and his assistants kept driving, visiting more than half of the recruits.

The effort paid off, though, as Walker’s 21 freshmen — and the rest of his team — compete in a four-team meet against Johns Hopkins, St. Peter’s and Loyola starting today at Loyola.

The multi-session competition begins tonight at 5. It continues all day tomorrow, with meets beginning at both 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. The Orangemen (1-1) are coming off of a 144-96 victory two weeks ago against Colgate. The Orangewomen (2-0) beat the Red Raiders almost as handily, 140-100.

‘We should be able to win both the men’s and the women’s competitions this weekend,’ Walker said.

Juniors Spencer Raymond and Elyse McDonough hope to lead the teams, but the key to Syracuse’s performance this weekend lies in the legs and arms of the freshmen swimmers.

Freshmen Devon Ackroyd and Kathryn Gold aim to repeat their dominant performances of two weeks ago, when both qualified for the Big East Championship to be held in February.

‘Every week I’ve gradually gotten faster,’ said Ackroyd, ‘so hopefully I can keep that trend going.’

Like Ackroyd — who visited from Toronto last year — Gold too saw the campus. Despite the 3 inches of snow that fell that April day, Gold said she fell in love with the school so much that she cancelled her other college visits.

Perhaps the hardest adjustment the freshmen swimmers have faced is resisting the temptations of the college scene. With early-morning practices, the swimmers are hard pressed to get rest.

‘We’re up two hours before anyone else even thinks about getting up,’ Ackroyd said. ‘It’s hard not being able to go out at night when some other people may go out and watch Monday Night Football. But we’ve got practice in the morning.’

For freshman swimmer Bobby Schelling, his adjustment was harder than what most of his teammates faced. Earlier in the year, Schelling came down with mononucleosis.

‘I got pretty sick,’ Shelling said. ‘I didn’t know it at the time, but I said, ‘I’ve never been this tired in my entire life.’ I later found out that I’d never been that tired in my entire life.’

With all the new faces in the pool, the upperclassmen, particularly the captains, play big roles in mentoring the freshmen.

‘When they start getting serious,’ Schelling said, ‘it has an influence on the rest of the team.’

‘It’s nice knowing someone else is doing it alongside you,’ Gold said, ‘and you’re not the only one.’

Published on October 31, 2002 at 12:00 pm