By: Victoria White
    Ahead of the women's swimming and diving season opener, the SMU Classic, at the Robson & Lindley Aquatics Center on Oct. 12-13 and the men's Oct. 27 dual meet at LSU, four seniors on the team discussed their goals for the year.

    Anticipating the start of the season, senior freestyle and backstroke swimmer El Yellin, said she has a good feeling about the team her senior year.

    "I'm looking forward to it, but, it's bittersweet!" Yellin said. "It's my last one, so I'm really just looking forward to having fun with this group. This is a really special team, really good team chemistry. Everyone's working really hard. I'm excited to see how the first meet goes. It's going to be a fun year. I just don't want it to go by too fast."

    With practice well under way, senior freestyle swimmer Lucas Schenke said that the team is dedicated to accomplishing the goals that they set.

    "Preparation's going pretty well," Schenke said. "It's our first season in this new pool, the first full season. So, that's going pretty well. I think the team is really motivated for this season and of course, we're looking forward to conference in late February and beginning of March. But that's our biggest meet, and that's what we're training for."

    Looking forward to a fresh start, senior backstroke swimmer Kianu Kitching agreed.

    "New facility, new members, kind of a whole new rebirth," Kitching said. "Our main goal is to win conference and just get better really."

    Senior sprint freestyle and butterfly swimmer, Amy Hess, is embracing her final year of competition, too. 

    "I'm just excited for the whole season," Hess said. "It's my senior year, so it's my last hurrah. I think we have a really great team this year with a lot of potential especially from our freshman class. We have six incoming swimmers and a diver."

    Hess' favorite memory on the team happened when she, too, was a freshman at SMU.

    "[My favorite] was probably the conference meet, my freshman year because we won that year," Hess said. "We swept. We won all of the relays, and we had a conference winner. It seemed like we had someone place in the top three in like every single event, so that was exciting. It was an environment I had never experienced before."

    Hoping to repeat a conference victory in The American, Hess said that the team has high goals that they are striving toward.

    "Some of our goals are to win dual meets, try to beat some more conference rivals, and of course, place as high as we can in conference in February," Hess said.

    At the annual Red and Blue Intrasquad Meet, SMU student athletes competed against each other in their new facility, the Robson & Lindley Aquatics Center and Barr-McMillion Natatorium. The seniors said that members of the team are motivated and ready for the upcoming 2018-19 season.

    "Practices have gone really well so far," Kitching said. "Just starting in the new pool, swimming every day in an environment that makes us have the ability to be successful is great. Everyone's committed. Everyone's motivated. The team's bonded, and everything's improved overall. I couldn't be happier, to be honest, especially as a captain my senior year."