Just Add Water -- Swimmers and Divers Take MAAC Title and Place at ECAC
With any successful recipe you need to add a little water. And the same holds true for the success of Rider’s swimming and diving teams – just add a little water.
There must have been something in the water at Loyola University’s Mangione Aquatic Center in Baltimore as 36 records were set out of 40 events at the 2009 Metro Atlantic Athletic conference championships hosted by the Greyhounds during the weekend of February 12 to 14.
As for Rider, the Broncs returned home with 21 records, one team championship by the women and a runner-up finish by the men’s team, three MAAC Coach of the Year awards and three of a possible four MAAC Outstanding Performer of the Meet awards.
That success continued during the weekend of February 27 to March 1 as Rider set several ECAC records at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships, hosted by Harvard University, with the women finishing second out of 23 teams and the men third out of 26 teams.
For good measure, Rider head coach Steve Fletcher was voted ECAC Female Coach of the Year, while with the Modrov siblings, Priscilla and Drew, each came home with ECAC Swimmer of the Meet awards. Both Priscilla and Drew were awarded MAAC Performer of the Meet recognition at Loyola.
“We train as a team knowing that the points we pick up in consolations are just as important as winning an event,” Fletcher said. “Individual championships are great but winning the team title is the ultimate goal. The conference championship was 365 days of preparation. The teams came into the season wanting to work hard and push themselves and they did.”
“Coach Fletcher deserves the coaching recognition,” Priscilla Modrov said. “We swam out of our minds and the coaching staff was the reason. We set pool records, MAAC records, ECAC records and you don’t do that without leadership at the top of the program.”
During the MAAC meet, sophomore Drew Modrov broke two Loyola pool records that had been held by Olympian Michael Phelps.
“I always expect the best from myself and my team because we practice hard,” Drew Modrov said. “We have great coaches that prepare us and we have great team captains that lead the way. It’s always special when you break a record, but to break two records that were held by the greatest swimmer of all time, Michael Phelps, it leaves me speechless.”
“Drew has just improved over the last year and a half,” said Fletcher. “He is very consistent in his training. The support that he has had, with his brother (Brandon Modrov ’06) having swum here and his sister being a senior swimmer at Rider, that gave Drew the confidence to know that the program works. He has so much potential to get better in the years to come.”
This is the second time that two Modrov siblings have won MAAC Performer of the Meet awards at the same time, with Brandon and Priscilla each recognized after the 2006 MAAC Championships, when Priscilla was a freshman. This year, it was Priscilla and Drew.
“It was a great honor to win the Most Outstanding Male Swimmer Award along with my sister winning the Female Swimmer award,” Drew Modrov added. “I’m honored because all of the coaches in the MAAC vote for the award and to know that they think my performance was deserving of the award is tremendous.”
“I’m thankful that my family and especially my brothers Brandon and Drew have been able to share my time at Rider with me,” Priscilla Modrov said. “I’m also thankful that my parents have been very supportive for the past 20 years of my swimming career and especially my four years at Rider. It’s one thing to get swimmer of the meet or be recognized with a teammate but to have both myself and Drew get that accolade in the same meet after Brandon and I did the same thing a few years ago made it even more special. I’m very happy and excited for what Drew was able to accomplish. It was a very special meet for both of us.”
Both Drew and Priscilla were recently recognized by CollegeSwimming.com with National Swimmer of the Week honors and Brandon and Priscilla were recognized in 2006 in Sports Illustrated’s Faces in the Crowd.
This marks the third MAAC championship for the women’s squad, having also won in 2000-01 and 2002-03. Both the Rider men and women placed second last season.
“It was great for the seniors to break through and win the championship,” Fletcher said. “The Rider alumni were watching and rooting them on. They set the foundation for what this team accomplished. This year’s team won for the teams that came so close over the last six years.”
“My goal was to do well for the team,” Priscilla Modrov added. “I didn’t really care about any of the individual awards; my goal was a conference championship and the team came through. I knew we had the capability to win and it was a great way to end my career at Rider.”
“Priscilla is a perfect example of what all of our women do year to year, which is to improve,” Fletcher said. “Her focus was getting faster, not any type of individual accolades.”
With all of the Modrovs’ success, it would be easy to overlook the performances by the divers. Junior Amanda Burke, the Rider Female Athlete of the Year in 2007-08 and the two-time MAAC Diver of the Meet, make sure that didn’t happen.
Burke became the first Rider swimmer or diver to qualify for the NCAA Championships last season and will compete in the NCAA Zone Meet, diving’s version of March Madness, in an attempt to qualify for the second year in a row at the University at Buffalo from March 12 to 15.
“I dove well but I was worried more about my teammates,” said Burke about her performance at the MAAC meet. “They were diving in the high-pressure situation of the conference meet for the first time and with the team scores so close, I knew every point would matter. They came through and dove really well.”
Burke’s success led to Dennis Ceppa being named MAAC Diving Coach of the Year for the third time in the past four seasons. “Coach Ceppa was able to lead all of the men’s divers into the finals,” Burke said. “And with the success he has had on the women’s side, he really deserved the recognition.”
“The MAAC Championships are a great accomplishment for Amanda but in diving, we look at it as just one more step to getting better for a shot at NCAAs,” Ceppa said. “Amanda is getting better every day. Repeating as Diver of the Year is just as demanding mentally as physically. In some senses, it’s harder to repeat than win for the first time.”
“Winning the MAAC team championship hasn’t really hit me yet,” Burke said. “I tried diving my best and it is inspiring when the other divers come up to me and say they look up to me and look forward to watching my performance.”
“Amanda worked very hard to improve this year, which was hard to do because she went to NCAAs last season,” said Fletcher. “She is used to the big-meet environment and just constantly improves. We exposed her to the highest level of competition that we could so that the championships were just another step for her to get back to NCAAs.”
“The women’s championship was amazing,” said Ceppa. “Everyone swam and dove to the best of their abilities. As far as my accolades, it is more of having athletes that want it, that are willing to come in and train. That makes your job that much easier.”
Yes, there was something in the water this season: the Rider Bronc Swimming and Diving teams.
