Whitworth Pirates hit pool with lofty goals

Second-year coach Steve Schadt can’t wait for the Northwest Conference Swimming Championships to get under way.

After last year’s NWC title and 11th-place showing at the 2003-04 NCAA Division III championships by the men, as well as a 26th-place showing by the women at nationals, Schadt is anxious for the 2004-05 championships, which run Friday through Sunday at the Whitworth Aquatic Center, to begin.

“I’m excited by it,” Schadt said. “It’s going to be great to have it at our own pool, having the campus support. I know it’s going to just be a great, loud, fast meet.

“Swimming is kind of a neat sport because you train, basically, for one meet during the year and for us that’s conference and nationals. It’s kind of like Christmas Day, you look forward to that day all season long, and it’s finally time.”

Walking into a program that has been successful over a long period of time and continuing that success is not an easy task.

But it’s what Schadt was charged with when he took over for his friend and former coach Tom Dodd in 2003.

And while transitions are almost never simple, this one was as smooth as it gets.

“(Dodd) did a great job as far as handing it over,” Schadt said. “He showed me a lot of the ins and outs. We talk quite a bit… I knew what to expect coming in.

“We had a great group of kids to work with, so it wasn’t that difficult to keep the ball rolling.”

It’s also not the first time Schadt has had success as a swimmer or a coach. Prior to taking the Whitworth job, Schadt spent four years as head coach at Salem International University, a Division II school in Salem, W.Va.

There, three of his swimmers earned Division II All-America status and another swimmer won a pair of national titles. He also led a women’s program that finished 11th nationally in 1999-2000.

So why leave West Virginia?

“I love this school,” said Schadt who was an All-America swimmer at Whitworth in 1996, leading the Pirates to a second-place finish at the 1996 NAIA Swimming and Diving Championships. “I had a great experience as an undergraduate. The campus is beautiful. The mission of the school and the Christian philosophy is just a really good match for me. I knew it was a place I could believe in and recruit for and do a good job for.”

It’s also a place where he can produce national qualifiers. Heading into the NWC Championships, four Pirates have already registered at least provisional NCAA qualifying scores: Senior Cory Bergman, who has met the NCAA “B” mark in the 200 breaststroke and the 200 individual medley; junior Loren Kilgore, who has met the “B” mark in the 400 IM, 500 freestyle and the 1,650 free; senior Serena Fadel, who has met the “B” mark in the 100 and 200 breaststroke and the 400 IM; and freshman Samantha Kephart, who has reached the “B” mark in the 100, 200 and 500 free, and reached the “A” mark in the 100 and 200 butterfly.

To qualify for the NCAA championships, a swimmer must either reach the “A” mark, or be among the top “B” marks when the field for each particular event is filled out. Qualifying for the “B” mark doesn’t guarantee you a spot in the national finals.

But once a swimmer does qualify for nationals in one event, he or she can participate in up to two more events, regardless of previous qualifying time.

Schadt’s expectations for the Pirates this weekend are high, especially considering the men are 36-0 in their last 36 dual meets.

“We have two goals,” Schadt said. “One, to win conference and the other, to get some more people qualified for NCAAs. We want to qualify as many guys as we can, hopefully get some relays in.”

And once at nationals, Schadt aims to have the Pirates improve upon last year’s men’s finish and set a new record for the women.

“Our goal is to improve on both sides,” Schadt said. “The men would like to crack back into the top 10 and the women, our best finish ever is 18th and we’d like to surpass that.”

And what a second year in charge that would be.