It was not supposed to end this way. This was not the plan. Yet for the three seniors not

participating in the Big East championship, reality and the plan are two different things.

The Villanova meet, which was scheduled for Feb. 5 and 6, was expected to be the culmination of their time as Syracuse swimmers. It was the one last chance they had to compete. But when it was cancelled due to a snowstorm in Philadelphia, they didn’t have a proper conclusion to their year, or their time as collegiate athletes.

‘It was something we were really looking forward to,’ senior Tim Holland said. ‘It would have been some good competition. It kind of sucks when you’re looking forward to something and you end up just swimming yourselves at the end of the year.’

Their last meet was replaced with time trials against some of the swimmers from the local club team, the Syracuse Chargers. A ceremony to recognize the seniors had to take place before this practice instead of before the meet, as originally planned.

Stephen Nolan said that despite the informality, the team showed a lot of improvement in this final swim, which provided some sense of closure.

The cancellation of the meet also deprived the swimmers of what would have been their only meet of the year to take place on campus. While seven of their teammates will go on to swim in the conference championships, this was their final opportunity. Nolan said that he had wanted to swim in front of a big group of supporters, something that he had never experienced, this being his first year on the team.

Dan Barry, the other senior not in Pittsburgh for the championships, also started swimming his senior year. Holland walked on his sophomore year. They wanted to make it to the Big East tournament but are satisfied with their seasons nonetheless.

‘I showed some improvement throughout the year, so I was happy with it,’ Nolan said. ‘It had to end eventually.’

Holland also said his technique got better under head coach Lou Walker and that he is leaving the program with something to show for it. Expectations played a big role in how well he and Nolan are handling the disappointing end to their season. His plan when joining the team was just to swim hard every day so that he didn’t get cut, and Nolan was not even that optimistic. Nolan said he simply wanted not to drown in his first days on the team.

For Holland, he was able to cope with the end of his career – despite the lack of closure – because he swam for the fun of it. He knew he was losing speed because of age and set his priorities accordingly.

With the sudden end to their season, all three swimmers now have to adjust. For Nolan, this means using free time to play video games. Holland said that it’s going to be hard getting used to a life without swimming but he will use it to study.

‘I’ve been doing it since I was 8, so that’s more than half my life,’ Holland said. ‘It’s going to be weird not having to wake up at 5 in the morning to go to practice anymore. It’s going to be a big change of pace.’

Despite the end of the season, Nolan said that the team will still keep in touch. He said he frequently bumps into people from the team, particularly the seniors. He is even making an effort to stay in shape with some of them.

‘Just in the last week, every day or every other day, I’ve been lifting with Danny (Barry) and Tim (Holland),’ Nolan said. ‘I’ll definitely see kids from the team.’

alguggen@syr.edu