The Simpson women’s swim team is hoping to improve as a whole and also individually.

“A team goal of ours is to get stronger because the stronger we get the better we will do in competition and in lowering our times,” said senior Amy Post.

One of the main changes for the women this season has been the practice schedule. Instead of getting up early each morning, practice has been moved to afternoons. The only problem now is schedule conflicts and everyone not being able to attend practice each day.

“It’s harder to get us all together with practices being in the afternoon, but it’s nice not having to get up as early,” said Post.

Junior Dana Kuiken was the first Simpson swimmer to qualify provisionally for the NCAA championships in 2002. This statistic isn’t surprising after her attendance at the state meet in high school for three years.

“When coming to Simpson I wanted to see how far I could go,” said Kuiken. “Now I’m hoping to improve in my strokes and make it to nationals this upcoming season.”

As much work as the team puts in each season, the team doesn’t have a conference meet to end the year’s competition. Even though it competes against the same teams as other sports, there is no conference. There are intentions of scheduling a conference meet within the next couple of years.

According to Kuiken, the women compete in a small college meet at the end of the season, and from there a top percentage are granted a trip to the national tournament that year.

Mark Corley has coached the women for the past two years, and is also an active coach for the Des Moines Swimming Federation.

The team has just one senior this year, Post, who hopes to be able to contribute as much as possible after student teaching starts in the fall.

“A goal for me is to get a strong start and to keep dropping my individual times,” said Post. “I hope to do this as I balance both the swimming practice and student teaching.”

The team will be going to Dubuque this weekend for its first meet of the season. The Storm will be matched up against Loras and will then head to Minnesota in the beginning of December to participate in the St. Mary’s Invitational.