The Monks Swim Team is excited to begin its first season as a varsity sport at Saint Joseph's College. Eleven of the sixteen athletes are returning swimmers who participated on the club team last season. "We're very pleased with how the team is taking shape in the early part of the season," adds Head Swim Coach Becky Biggs.

Both FY Lindsay D'Ascanio (Kennebunk, ME) and FY Katie Brooks (N. Kingstown, RI) are strong first year recruits. SO Danielle Harmon (Poland, ME) and Lindsay D'Ascanio already have shown their skill in the butterfly events in the first meet. Both achieved qualifying times for the New England Championship meet. Katie Brooks is expected to have a strong presence in the backstroke events. JR Ashton Piers (Falmouth, ME) came back to school after the summer ready to be a threat in the pool and is expected to attain qualifying times in breastroke events this season. SO Erin Brady (Quincy, MA), JR Breana Murphy (Old Orchard Beach, ME), SO Lindsay Bates (Waterville, ME) and FY Meghan Lyons (Danvers, MA) will all be strong contributers in the freestyle events. JR Pat DeCola (Methuen, MA) and JR Nick Zecher (Mansfield, MA) have also returned this year determined to make their mark in the pool. Both swimmers have already achieved personal best times in the sprint freestyle events and are very excited about what the future holds with regard to their performances in the pool.

Swimming is a sport that relies on numbers as well as times. Every swimmer on the team contributed to the Monks win in the first meet. "It is my hope that the hard work and determination that I see in the pool each day at practice will translate into success at the meets," says Coach Biggs. The six qualifying times that swimmers on the team have already achieved is a foreshadowing of all that is to come in the Monks swim season. Recruiting has already begun for next year and the prospective student athletes for both the men's and women's team are strong and will further strengthen the skill that is already in the pool here at St. Joe's.