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UWF Swimming & Diving Works Toward A Banner Season

UWF//Emmele Photography

  In part two of our look at winter sports at the University of West Florida, Argonauts Swimming and Diving is growing – without suffering the usual growing pains of a new program.

Head Coach Andrew Hancock says now that they’re in year three, the new is starting to wear off a bit. They’re more settled when it comes to both routine and expectations, which in turn presents a different dynamic.

“Every year we seem to get more and more support, and we truly appreciate it,” said Hancock. “It makes a huge difference, our athletes thrive on it, and it really helps make us tick.”

When the program was begun in 2013, it was a Title-IX offset to the start of the football program. Title-IX is the federal law that requires equal access to athletics for both men and women. But this is no token compliance gesture. Swimming and Diving is 21-12 all time in dual meets, finishing 11th in Division II last season.

One of those All-Americans is Josie Lyons, a senior diver from Canton, Ohio, who transferred to UWF from Malone University in Canton. She says one secret to their success has been developing chemistry as a team.

“Right away, when I came onto this team we had never competed before, but the team we were family right away,” Lyons said. “Since then it’s gotten even better and I think that we owe a lot of our success to that.”

Another shot in the arm, says Lyons, was the addition last year of another All-American, Monica Amaral – a junior diver from Rio de Janiero, Brazil. And a major boost is competing against some Division I schools. 

“Monica coming into our program here, I think boosted the competition,” said Lyons. “Our first year diving against [Florida State] was the best competition I’d ever seen. But now I see that kind of stuff every day, and I think that makes me want to be a better competitor.”

Similar to what new Men’s Basketball Coach Jeff Burkhamer said during the media day, Swimming and Diving Coach Andrew Hancock also spoke about creating a culture people want to join, then work to make it a success.

“We had a lot of contributions last year from people who improved tremendously, just from getting into this environment,” Hancock said. “

The Argos will swim at Florida State this weekend, then the FIT Invitational in Melbourne November 19-22. The next home meet is the UWF Holiday Invitational on January 2.