Women’s Swimming Returns, Diving Still Yet to Plunge into Competition

The 2021-22 swimming and diving season is underway for the Lady Flames as Liberty opened the season at Campbell with a 142-115 win. The win included Liberty victories in one relay and nine individual events.

The victory was Liberty’s 18th straight win against Campbell, moving the Lady Flames up to a record of 18-2. Abbie Shaw took over the No. 5 ranking in program history in the 50 backstroke, which she completed in 26.60 as part of the 200 medley relay.

Considering success in recent years, Liberty’s win has come as no surprise to Head Coach Jake Shellenberger. 

“When you win three conference titles in a row, you don’t have to think too hard about it,” Shellenberger said. “What comes with the territory of winning three in a row is you want to win four.”

Freshman Sydney Stricklin made her first appearance as a Lady Flame in the competition.

“She is a top-100 recruit out of Michigan,” Shellenberger said. “That is the football or basketball equivalent of a five-star recruit, so we are excited to see what she will do.”

On the diving side of things, the reconstruction of the diving towers continues after their collapse last fall. The construction has left some of the team’s top divers in the air.

The waiting for completion has rerouted some season expectations for divers like senior Lauren Chennault, who is hoping to win all four years of her college career. 

“My expectations are a little different than what they would have been if the tower didn’t… collapse,” Chennault said. “Whenever the 3m opens back up, I want to get on that and focus a lot on the dives that I was doing last year and get them solid again to where I am confident going into conference.”

Chennualt added that she has been able to train even without the diving boards. 

“We’ve been doing a lot of dryland stuff, so my basics have gotten a lot better, and hopefully, that will transfer to the boards,” Chennault said.

As far as some of the younger talent on the team, 2021 CCSA Women’s Diver of the Year Maddie Freece is coming off a strong freshman year. Freece said a good way to build off her and the team’s success is to keep having fun. 

“Last year we had so much fun winning conference, and we were all so joyful and jumping around,” Freece said. “Just taking the pressure aspect off, it is going to be really helpful for us this year.”

The Lady Flames will be back in action Oct. 21-22 for a meet at Marshall in Huntington, West Virginia.

Zehnder is a sports reporter. Follow him on Twitter at @zaczehnder.