2000 Season Outlook – Ohio State Buckeyes
1/6/2000 12:00:00 AM | Artistic Swimming
Jan. 6, 2000
Welcoming a talented freshman class in addition to last season’s top competitors has head coach Linda Lichter-Witter optimistic that her synchronized swimming team can re-gain the national title which has eluded them for the past two seasons.%^$
%^$The squad finished with a 31-1 record on the season and second to Stanford at the Collegiate Nationals.%^$
%^$Senior All-American Heather Moore returns after being redshirted last season. Carolina and Isabela Moraes will return with their Collegiate National win in the duet event and will help lead the `A’ team. Sophomore Mary Hofer, who captured first place in the trio event with the twins at nationals, will again challenge for a top `A’ spot.%^$
%^$”We have a really good situation on `B’ team as well because we lost one senior,” assistant coach Holly Vargo-Brown said. “Both teams have the situation where they have the same core group coming back.”%^$
%^$”We have so many good people in the freshman class,” Lichter-Witter said.%^$
%^$The extremely talented Victoria Bowen will challenge for one of the top `A’ squad spots, while the other freshmen will debut as `B’ team members. With the addition of Bowen, Lichter-Witter said the Buckeyes will have a nucleus of 12 swimmers but only eight will be chosen to make up the `A’ team.%^$
%^$The Schedule
%^$Hosting the Collegiate Nationals as well as the North Regionals, highlights the 2000 synchro schedule.%^$
%^$”Having Collegiate Nationals at home will mean tremendous support from family, friends and the student body,” Lichter-Witter said.%^$
%^$Lichter-Witter and Vargo-Brown have wasted no time in preparing for the three-day event March 16-18.%^$
%^$To start the season, the Buckeyes will meet Michigan and Miami in a tri-meet. They will also challenge the University of Alabama-Birmingham. The OSU squad hopes to meet Stanford, the current national champion, at least once during the regular season, but isn’t quite sure where that match-up will occur.%^$
%^$No Time Wasted
%^$The Buckeyes didn’t lick their wounds too long after their second place finish at Collegiate Nationals last season. Vargo-Brown and Lichter-Witter began planning for the season when the squad traveled to San Diego to train for the U.S. Nationals just two days after the loss.%^$
%^$”I have been on both sides, as a coach and as an athlete, when we have won and when we have lost,” Vargo-Brown said. “Some of the most rewarding times are when we were a little bit behind and found a way to figure it out. We’ve already started planning for this year and we have a smart plan.”%^$
%^$The Coaching Staff
%^$The coaching aspect will take on a new dimension for the 2000 season. AnnMarie Lichter, daughter-in-law of head coach Lichter-Witter, will add a competitive edge with her experience in synchronized choreography.%^$
%^$”She is an excellent choreographer and adding her to our coaching staff is a plus,” Lichter-Witter said. “She is very creative and that will allow us to get more artistic. She’s very excited to be part of the team.”%^$
%^$Vargo-Brown returns for her ninth season and will continue to challenge the swimmers with rigorous strength and conditioning exercises.%^$
%^$”Holly is such an asset to me because she was such an amazing athlete here and she has been on teams that have won and lost,” Lichter-Witter said. “It is almost a coping thing for me. The year her team lost happened to be one of the best OSU teams ever with Olympians Karen and Sarah Josephson on it.”%^$
%^$One Of The Best
%^$Lichter-Witter is confident that her program remains one of the most competitive in the country.%^$
%^$”Synchronized swimming is a subjective sport,” Lichter-Witter said. “But there is no doubt in my mind that Ohio State has a great collegiate program. Because the squad is so large, the talent and the contingency of the reserves will allow us to enter multiple competitors and earn more points,” she said.%^$
%^$”If it was allowed, our depth would be unbelievable,” she said.%^$
%^$Experience also adds to the elite program.Former Buckeyes Becky Jastonek and Emily Marsh paired up to represent the U.S. at the 1999 PanAmerican Games in Winnipeg, Canada in the duet event. The two went on to win the silver medal. The Moraes twins represented their home country of Brazil in the duet event as well, capturing the bronze.
