Swimming, Diving Strives to Break Personal, School Records this Season
Erin Hickle
The Manchester University swimming and diving team returns with new goals for the 2019-2020 season. With a coach returning for his second season and five returning athletes, the Spartans hope to make a splash in the conference meet and break existing records.
Mike Kocsis is the second full-time head coach of the Spartan swimming and diving team. He received Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology and Health from the University of North Dakota in 2015, and he will receive a Master of Science in Health and Human Performance from the University of Cumberlands in December 2019.
Kocsis joined the team last October after arriving from the University of Cumberlands in Kentucky as a graduate assistant men’s and women’s swimming coach. He also has experience in coaching at the high school level. During his first year at Manchester, the black and gold received many conference honors, saw success during the postseason meets, and the women’s team earned College Swimming and Diving Coach Association of America (CSCAA) Scholar All-America Team Honors for posting a team GPA of 3.51. Scotty Seacrest volunteers to help coach the divers as well.
There is a total of sixteen athletes on the Manchester University’s swimming and diving team this year, twelve of them are women and four are men. There are seven first years that joined the team this season, along with four athletes who are returning to MU but have decided to swim with the Spartans for the first time. Kocsis encourages any students who are interested in swimming and diving to contact him as they are always looking to grow.
This year, the goals of the team include both teams being recognized as Academic All Americans and everyone having lifetime best swims in their events. Coach Kocsis also hopes the women’s team can win against a conference competitor Transylvania University.
The team was in action on Oct. 12 as they opened their season at the Wabash Division 3 Invite in Crawfordsville. Kocsis stated his excitement to see where his athletes are at as they kick off their season. “If we do well individually, team success will be a byproduct,” Kocsis said. “I train them to have their best times and have their best swims.”
Kocsis enjoys traveling to the Purdue Invite as it allows them to be exposed to a level of competition they do not typically see during their season and gives them something to strive for as competitors. He also looks forward to his athletes competing in the Conference meet every year. Kocsis can bring with him 40 athletes in total, 20 men and 20 women. He hopes his team this year can break fourteen school records. Last year during the conference meet the Manchester broke 11 records.
The first home meet for the Spartans is on November 18. Manchester will host Bethel College and Franklin College at 5 p.m.