For the Grand Valley State University swimming and diving team, the NCAA Division II National Championship is the holy grail of competitions. Every lap, every dive, every victory and every defeat during the regular season are just baby steps on the road to what they call “the big meet”.

For junior swimmer Raphael Santos and junior diver Karen Verbrugge, among the 20 swimmers and six divers making the trip to San Antonio, Texas from March 8 to 12, this is the peak of the semester, said GVSU head coach Andy Boyce.

“They’ve been training for this since the beginning of the season,” he said. “And it’s a long season – we’ve had a lot of dual meets, (an) invitational, and our conference just finished up a few weeks ago. They’ve barely had time to rest.”

Santos said the swimmers are much more relaxed during the days before the meet. Last Wednesday, the team members switched to easier workout routines to save their strength for the events.

“Most of us didn’t lift weights after the conference meets ended [on Feb. 12],” Santos said. “I did because I personally like to lift weights up to a week and a half before the meet, but now this week, we’re all just cutting back. We’re tired. We feel that our bodies deserve the rest.”

Santos currently holds the third-best time for the 100-yard backstroke in the nation, and he owns the current school record in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke. While he is only attending nationals for the second time in the U.S., he formerly swam with the Junior National Team in his native country, Brazil.

“He’ll be one of the top people there for us,” Boyce said. “There are two people out there who are faster this year, but he’s up for the challenge.”

In contrast to the lighter routines adopted by the swim team, Verbrugge and other championship qualifying divers are using their last days home to cram in as much improvement as possible.

“It gets pretty tough right up until nationals,” she said. “We’re trying to up our numbers and get as fit as possible.”

During the 2010 nationals conference, Vebrugge placed second in the one-meter dive and seventh in the three-meter dive. She said she both hopes and expects to maintain her place at the top.

Each athlete has a different method of mentally preparing for the match. Santos said lately in the evening, he lies down in a comfortable spot with the lights off and pictures the match.

“I visualize my routine before the race,” he said. “I also visualize myself swimming – reaching the wall. It makes me more comfortable about my race and what I’m going to do. When it comes, I know what I’m going to feel at that moment because I’ve already visualized it.”

On the other hand, Verbrugge said she, with her roommate and fellow nationals competitor Rachel Strom, focus on keeping the rest of the team lighthearted and optimistic.

“We’re pretty laid back when it comes to practice,” she said. “Our team gets a little anxious when it comes to these meets, so we try to keep the tone pretty mellow. There’s a lot of freshmen and sophomores on the team who have never been to nationals, and we want them excited instead of scared.”

The Lakers will fly to San Antonio a couple days before the meet begins on March 8.

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