As part of our coverage in these unprecedented times, UIndyAthletics.com will highlight each of our winter sports by posting detailed season recaps of the 2019-20 men's and women's basketball, men's & women's swimming, indoor track & field and wrestling programs. We kick things off with a look at the Greyhound swimmers & divers.
 
SEASON FLASHBACK
The UIndy swimming & diving teams had a ton of potential built up in 2020. As February came to a close, the Greyhound men secure their third straight GLVC title and UIndy as a whole stocked its nationals team with one of the greatest number of qualifiers in program history.
 
UIndy was primed for a potentially historic performance at the NCAA DII Championships, but as an unprecedented modern-day pandemic abruptly ended the postseason for thousands of student-athletes across the country, that potential was never fully realized.
 
The Alpha Dogs kicked off the season's final meet, held at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio, with 11 All-America nods in five events, including runner-up honors in the men's 200 medley relay and the women's 3-meter board.
 
The next morning, UIndy reaped six finals spots during the day-two prelims to go with its four divers waiting to compete in the men's 1-meter final. The Hounds were on track for trophy finishes on both the men's and women's side.
 
But it was not to be.
 
COVID-19 concerns were growing exponentially, and the NCAA wisely joined organizations all over the world in making the tough decision to cancel events, including swimming & diving nationals.
 
"It was a tough situation," recalled Head Coach Jason Hite, "and you have to do what the leaders tell you to do. Some of the kids were already at the pool when we learned about it and I was getting ready to leave the hotel, so I wish we could have all been together at that exact moment, but we weren't and we handled it the best way we could.

"It was obviously very disappointing and unfortunate."
 
SIGNATURE MOMENT
"The biggest thing for us is that we got the team together later that night," Hite said of the team's final evening in Geneva following the cancellation. "Our seniors and our assistants, as well as Terry Fletcher (massage therapist) and Lydia Stiving (athletic trainer) all got together and organized a night of fun.
 
"Some coaches went out and got pizzas and wings and sodas and ice cream; a little bit of comfort food," Hite said laughing. "Some of the parents came over for dinner, and later we had a good two hours of fun in the hotel pool.

"It was an incredible memory; it was incredible how the kids bought in and how they let it go. They really had a great time and it is definitely the best memory I got from this season, and it really, truly shows what our team is all about.

"We had 31 student-athletes there at that point and you couldn't tell whether if they were best friends or not; it was one group and one family, and that was a pretty impressive thing that we saw. To see them do one more team cheer together, and to have one of the parents come down from the second floor of the hotel to say they could hear our kids that far away, it was pretty amazing. It brought a smile to our faces; it brought a smile to all their faces, and even in the worst-case scenario for them in that moment, they made the best of it.
 
"I'm very thankful that we have such a good staff here. Different people fit different roles all the time, and they did a great job of making the best of a bad situation and helping us leave on a positive note instead of us leaving with tears and being bummed."
 
WHAT IF…
If the NCAA DII Swimming & Diving Championships continued as normal, UIndy may well have seen its first-ever female national champ in the sport. Three-meter runner-up Cassie Kury had her best event – the one-meter – still to come; senior Edda Skoric had not lost a 200 back race all season; and newcomer Marizel van Jaarsveld owned Division II's top time in the 400 IM.
 
HOUND BYTES
Jason Hite on the strength of his women's team ...
"This was probably the best women's team that UIndy swim & dive has ever had as far as opportunity to bring home a trophy at nationals, as far as points scored at conference, as far as the amount of records we broke this year. It was a powerful team that had some good solid depth too, so as a complete and total group, it was right up there with the best UIndy has ever had."
 
Jason Hite on his men's team ...
"For the third year in a row, we were a team that was going to be in the hunt for a top-four trophy at Nationals, and that says a lot about this team. We thought with the loss of people like Rodrigo (Codo Berti) and Zava (Guilherme Zavanelli) and Adam (Rosipal) that we would be way down this year, but we still put ourselves in a position to be a top-four program."
 
LIKE A BROKEN RECORD
The Hounds set a number of school records in 2019-20, including three men's relay records and all five relay marks on the women's side. Below os a list of the individual event records that fell.
 
Women
- Leticia Vaselli: 50 free
- Edda Skoric: 100 back, 200 back
- Mariia Rezhylo: 100 breast
- Darian Murray: 100 fly
- Marizel van Jaarsveld: 200 fly, 200 IM , 400 IM
- Cassie Kury: 1-meter (6 dives), 1-meter (11 dives)
 
Men
- Victor Antonon: 50 free
- Jan Zuchowicz: 100 breast
- Kael Yorke: 100 fly
- Payton Staman: 1-meter (6 dives), 1-meter (11 dives)
- Cade Hammond: 3-meter (6 dive)

SENIOR CLASS
This year's senior group includes Melanie Arnold, Jake Braumbaugh, TJ LeSeure, Ante Lucev, Kyle Massengale, Darian Murray, Madeline Rice, Edda Skoric, Payton Staman, Danielle Wood and Josh Zylstra.

GLVC WEEKLY AWARDS
- Andras Tiszai, 1/15/20
- Marizel  van Jaarsveld, 11/27/19
- Edda  Skoric, 10/30/19
- Marizel  van Jaarsveld, 10/23/19
- Jan  Zuchowicz, 10/23/19