The Grand Valley State swim and dive teams have found success throughout the regular season and now they look forward to their most important meet of the season: the GLIAC Championships.

“We’re really focused going into it,” said senior men’s co-captain Sam Soukup. “A lot of the guys are looking forward to this. We have kind of built everything around the conference meet, and said everything is a process and all the dual meets are steps towards the conference meet.”

The men’s (7-3, 4-1) only GLIAC loss came against the University of Indianapolis, when the Lakers dropped a 122-119 decision. They defeated conference foes Lewis University (186-49), Ashland University (154-88), Wayne State University (159-41) and the University of Findlay (170-41).

Soukup said the important role the entire team has in a meet that means so much.

“I think all of the success I’ve had and the program has had derives directly from your team,” he said. “Every race everyone is standing up screaming their heads off. The team pumps each other up and it’s a great environment and great experience for everyone.”

The women (8-3, 4-1) have performed consistently well throughout the season. Their only conference loss came against Wayne State, when they dropped a 165-135 decision.

GVSU defeated Ashland (152-88), Northern Michigan University (194-104), Findlay (159-74), Hope College (149-90) and Indianapolis (135-99).

Head coach Andy Boyce is hopeful that his teams will be able to maintain their high level of swimming from the regular season and contend for first place.

“We’re looking pretty healthy right now, and looking to drop some times and have great dives,” he said. “It’s going to be a really competitive meet with us, Wayne State, Indianapolis and Ashland competing for the top spot.

GVSU is hoping that their depth will be a key difference in their ability to score points under the scoring system that is used in the GLIAC meet.

“We have strong swimmers in almost every event, and right at the top of the conference in diving as well,” Boyce said. “The scoring’s different from a regular dual meet, and the depth of a team will help you in this situation. We have depth on both the men’s and women’s side. A lot of points are being given out for first through eighth, so that’s our goal, to get as many people as we can in the top eight.”

One swimmer the Lakers will rely on is senior Carly Bush, the defending GLIAC champion of the 200-yard butterfly.

“Everybody’s prepared and we are all really excited for the meet,” she said. “We have been training for it all year round. Now that it’s close, we are ready to go and feeling good in the water. As a team I think we are going to pull together and do some amazing things.”

Both teams will have their endurance tested over the four-day meet. The Lakers will have to use their time off useful to prepare their bodies for the grind.

“We try to get as much rest as we can and eat healthy,” Bush said. “In between races we try to sleep and get good rest and try to stay as loose and ready as we can, because your muscles get sore and you get a lot of lactic acid built up.”

The Lakers will have a home pool advantage as the meet takes place in the Jenison Aquatics Center, where the Lakers already swam this year against Michigan State. The meet begins Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.

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