Preview: Pepperdine Enters Final Season

Perhaps Pepperdine’s swimming and diving team should enter this season with a Bucket List. But then again, the Waves’ goals have remained unchanged whether it’s been their first year or last year. All they’ve ever wanted to do was keep getting faster through every meet and win the PCSC Championships.

2009-10 is their last chance to do all of that.

An unintended victim of the country’s economic hardships, the program was folded as part of university-wide budget cuts in late February only to have new life breathed into it a week later after a number of patrons stepped forward with enough financial assistance that allowed the program one last season.

Sadly, the program will still be disbanded following the 2009-10 school year but head coach Nick Rodionoff says nothing has changed within his team’s attitude as they prepare for their season opener at Fresno (Oct. 10) for the PCSC Pentathlon.

“Maybe there’s a little more emotion in their efforts, but so far it’s been a normal offseason,” the 10-year head coach said. “Everyone’s continuing to improve at a similar rate compared to previous years and are concentrating on the physical aspect of the sport. There’s been no time to dwell on the negative — it won’t do anybody any good.”

What has greatly boosted the program’s morale is the fact that six of the seven freshmen Rodionoff recruited for this season lived up to their commitments and came to Pepperdine as promised in their Letters of Intent. The Waves had nothing to promise these young ladies — no money, no guarantee of an extra season — but they still showed up right on schedule.

Sarah Burris (Virginia Beach, Va./Cox HS) traveled 2,800 miles from Virginia; High School All-American Rachel Dekar (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School) ventured 2,300 miles from suburban Detroit; and Andrea Kacynski (Superior, Colo./Superior HS) became the third Colorado native to hop on this year’s roster — and all of them are on a mission to carry Pepperdine to the PCSC championship.

Rodionoff also recruited several talented Golden State prospects including Shannon Adkins (Granite Bay, Calif./Granite Bay HS), Klaire Korver (Redwood City, Calif./Pinewood School) and Jenna Tenwolde (Laguna Niguel, Calif./Dana Hills HS).

“The freshmen we’ve brought in have been amazing,” Rodionoff said. “They’re so upbeat and totally positive at every workout and I’m convinced all will score at the conference meet — there’s no question about it. They’re going full speed ahead on a sheet of thin ice and nothing’s going to stop them.”

The Wave freshmen join an already established and successful team that returns 10 scorers from last year’s PCSC Championship squad that placed third with 1,025 points and earned Rodionoff his second PCSC Coach of the Year award.


This talented group features distance specialist Madison Krall (Pueblo, Colo./Pueblo Centennial HS), backstrokers Ali Chester (Riverside, Calif./Riverside Poly HS) and Rachel Cotè (Honolulu, Hawai’i/Punahou HS), the one-two breaststroke punch of Dani Kimmel (Chula Vista, Calif./Eastlake HS) and Kayleen Hicks (Chico, Calif./Chico HS), butterflyer Francesca Cyphers (Lake Oswego, Ore./St. Mary’s Academy) and IM’er Joanne Perry (Charlotte, N.C./Charlotte Latin School).          

Additionally, Hicks, Kimmel, Cyphers and Cotè combined to scored on four of five relays and the divers bring back three of their top-five PCSC performers — conference 1-meter gold medalist Tiffany Martz (Folsom, Calif./Folsom HS), Kristin Scribner (Bonney Lake, Wash./Bonney Lake HS) and Leslie Wade (Atlanta, Ga./The Lovett School).

The only significant loss appears to be that of Haley Wilson (Carpinteria, Calif./Santa Barbara HS), who graduated at the end of last season after leading Pepperdine to a new varsity record of 1:46.35 in the 200 medley relay.

The 200 medley relay was one of two varsity records established by Wave swimmers during the 2008-09 campaign along with Kimmel’s new standard of 1:04.57 in the 100 breast. Kimmel entered the year holding the old record of 1:05.23 only to be surpassed by Hicks’ time of 1:05.17 during the season’s first meet at the PCSC Relays. Kimmel eventually would top Hicks’ personal best by .01 seconds before dropping under the 1:05 mark for good at the conference championships.

Overall, a total of 25 new times — both individual and relay — were entered into the program’s all-time top performances list.

Cotè, the conference champion in the 100 back, has her named highlighted through the record book but the Waves will be without her services until spring semester as she takes care of academics. Rodionoff is planning on her returning to the team in January and is confident she’ll be ready to go from day one.         

“Rachel really is our best athlete and she can make all the difference in the world on relays,” he said. “It’s going to get a little touchy when we don’t have her around in the fall, because we’ll need to switch around some events as we find new backstroke swimmers for relays.”

At the top of Rodionoff’s list to replace Cotè as the team’s top option in the backstroke is Amy Nightingale (Paradise, Calif./Home Tech Charter School), who is a varsity record holder as part of the 400 medley relay team that clocked a 3:51.92 during the 2006-07 season.

Pepperdine has not been the only area school affected by financial cuts to its athletics department. UC Irvine lost both its men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs during the summer, leaving the Waves and many other PCSC schools scrambling to find new meets to replace November’s Anteater Shootout and January’s UCI Invitational. Cal Poly picked up the November meet and rebranded it as the Cal Poly Shootout, while Pepperdine is trying to secure the January 2nd and 3rd dates.

If the Waves are allowed to host the first swim meet of 2010 that will give them three home January events (Cal State Northridge, PCSC Time Trials) in addition to the Malibu Invitational scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 24. The remaining road meets are similar to the ones Pepperdine attended last season; however, the Waves have added the Finis Collegiate Invitational in Long Beach for the weekend of Dec. 11 to 13.

"Our schedule gives us a chance to see who can do what in off events,” Rodionoff said. “For example, we have four or five really good distance freestyle swimmers but we’re not as deep in the sprints, so we’ll have some of them switch around in order to qualify for the PCSCs in these events.”

Rodionoff's Event Breakdown

Sprint Freestyle: “This area is a little sketchy and we’ll miss Rachel (Cotè) and Haley (Wilson) in these areas. Haley was a great all-around swimmer. Thankfully, everyone loves swimming the 50 free and we'll have Sara Burris, Kayleen Hicks, Dani Kimmel leading us in this event.”

 
Distance Freestyle: “We're in great shape in the 500 and 1000 with Madison Krall, Shannon Atkins, Andrea Kacynski and Brianna Blanchard leading the way. Madison also is good in the 400 IM and 200 fly. Shannon should be good in the sprints and is also strong in the backstroke.”

Backstroke: “In Rachel's (Cotè) absence, we have a pretty good group in Amy Nightingale, Ali Chester, Jessell Owens, Shannon Atkins and Marissa McDaniel. Atkins is good and Owens is swimming real well in preseason.”

Breaststroke: “This is a phenomenal area for us with Rachel Dekar, Dani Kimmel, Kayleen Hicks and Joanne Perry shouldering the load. These four also are very good in the IM as well as the sprint freestyle. Joanne is physically stronger and is off to a great start, having a better preseason than last year’s. Dani is going to have a great senior year even though she's dealing with a minor injury right now. She is a huge talent. Kayleen is recording some of her best times in practice — primarily in the breaststroke — but her freestyle is getting better as well. Her performances have been very encouraging.”

Butterfly: “Our top performers look to be Franny Cyphers, Amy Nightingale, Madison Krall — especially in the 200 fly — and Martha Murphy (Lakewood, Colo./Green Mountain HS). Martha is looking a lot better as she has really worked hard to come back to us in great shape. This year looks like it’s going to be Franny's best year. She has come into preseason physically stronger and with more intensity. She has been our No. 1 competitor when doing pull-ups, which is a solid measuring stick for determining upper body strength. She is doing great.”

Individual Medley: “This event is going to be tough to figure out, but at least we work everyone in all four strokes in order to avoid injury. Rachel Dekar can swim a 2:07 in the 200 breast and is a good flyer, but her participation will largely depend on what events she can rest between. The same goes with Madison, who incredibly swam the 200 fly and mile on the same day at the Speedo Cup.”

Relays: “I suspect we’re going to be changing relays around every meet until we get Rachel back in January. At the same time, we also have three great breaststroke options so we’ll have a hard time figuring out who will swim that leg and which of the other two can help elsewhere. It’s a fun challenge to have though.”

Diving: “Kristin (Scribner) and Elle (Wade) worked really hard in the offseason to improve their lists, and when I put them into competition with Tiffany (Martz) and Jenna (Tenwolde) I don't know who's going to win. They're all very competitive and I'm positive that they'll all score for us at conference.”