The Virginia men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams travel to South Carolina this weekend to take on South Carolina and Clemson. This will be the Cavaliers’ first dual meet competition of the season, and against Clemson, the squads will be looking to make a statement in their first conference test of the year.
Friday, Virginia will be competing against the Gamecocks (W: 0-1, M: 0-1), who fell to North Carolina last week. While the South Carolina men lost by 69 points to the Tar Heels, the women were out-scored by 52 points. Though the team results suggest South Carolina may struggle this season to compete nationally, one Gamecock the Cavaliers will have to watch out for is junior Sharntelle McLean, who competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics for her home country of Trinidad and Tobago. While she redshirted last season to train for the Olympics, she will be returning this year to compete in the her specialty event, the 50m freestyle.
Virginia, however, will be backed by its own Olympian. Freshman Erika Stewart will be swimming in her first-ever collegiate races this weekend after competing for the Colombian Olympic team in Beijing and finishing 32nd overall in the 200 IM with a lifetime best of 2:18:54.
Stewart is from North Carolina but has dual citizenship in the United States and Colombia, where her father is from and where most of her family still lives. One of the 35 swimmers associated with Virginia swimming at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha, Stewart was selected as the last representative on the 67-member Colombian team. While overseas, she faced some difficulty communicating as an American on a primarily Spanish-speaking national team, Stewart said, noting the opportunity to grow a swimmer and individual.
“I developed a lot of independence there because I was on my own,” she said. “I made a lot of friends, but it was definitely an adjustment.”
Although Stewart has gained some valuable knowledge competing on a global scale, where she finished 32nd overall in the 200 IM, she will have a different experience on the collegiate level.
“For Erika, she has been to the biggest competition and the biggest swim meet in the world,” head coach Mark Bernardino said. “But this college experience is different, as she will be competing against veteran athletes who have been through this. It will be new and different for her.”
Stewart said she knows that though international experience is uncommon, being an Olympian does not guarantee success at the college level.
“In college there are amazing athletes, and I have more competition here, so I will be working from the bottom,” Stewart said.
While the Gamecocks could pose a problem for both the Virginia men’s and women’s teams Friday, Clemson (W: 2-0, M: 1-1) could prove to be an even tougher challenge Saturday, especially on the women’s side. The Lady Tigers are coming off a victory against Georgia Tech where they swept all 14 events.
“We have two good opponents this weekend, but we’ll take one meet at a time,” Bernardino said. “Clemson is an annual foe, and South Carolina is a tough SEC competitor. We will perform to the best of our abilities each day.”
The Virginia men’s and women’s teams are the reigning ACC champions, and they are well aware of the threat posed by both South Carolina teams. While the veterans will be expected to perform at their best, this year’s freshman class will be looked to for point support as well.
Stewart is already setting high goals for herself.
“I want to swim well, and I want to score points for the team,” Stewart said. “We’ve been training very hard and it’s a goal of mine to be as close as possible to my best lifetime time that I swam at the Olympics.”
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