Vermont’s BURLINGTON “Let’s celebrate the 2024 America East Champions! On behalf of all of Catamount Country,” UVM Director of Athletics Jeff Schulman exclaimed to a packed Patrick Gym on Sunday afternoon.
The University of Vermont swimming and diving team is the conference champions for the first time in its 48-year existence.
Longtime head coach Gerry Cournoyer remarked, “The first thing I did on Saturday night when we won and [the team] realized they won, is I kind of stepped back and I just looked at each one of their faces [with] joy.”
Junior team member Halley Laney remarked, “I started balling and was just overjoyed and so grateful for everyone who came before me who brought us to this place.”
Junior Ella Church stated, “I was ready to encourage everyone else because I had completely changed out of my tech suit and taken a shower.” Why did you take a shower, asked one of my teammates? Later, we’re going to jump in the pool. I thought, ‘Really? Is this really going to occur?
Indeed, it did. The Catamounts declared victory with 683 points. The club had finished in third place for eleven straight seasons before to this triumph.
“We felt like we were going to stay there forever after going through the last two years and placing third fairly consistently,” junior Jackie House said.
Having played the part since the 2000–2001 season, Cournoyer noted, “That’s a great place for us to be, we celebrate that.” “However, knowing that we are on par with those other teams and still having a bad taste in my mouth,”
What, therefore, made this year’s squad superior?
“I believe that we talk about being positive a lot, but we changed that to being supportive early this year,” said Cournoyer. “How can we help each other, and how do you need to be helped? They were able to elevate one another because to it.
The head coach’s message was clear when it came to the four-day championship match in Lexington, Virginia.
“Avoid chasing the title. Just go after every swim. Give every performance your very best. “At the end of the day, it lies where it lies,” he recalled stating. “I believe that on Saturday night, our mentality was the difference-maker.”
Church won a gold medal in the 1650 free on the last day, and the victory was sealed with a crucial fourth place finish in the 400 free relay.
One of the four swimmers competing in the relay, Laney, stated, “I knew there would be a lot of pressure on me coming down to the wire because I knew it was going to be a really close championship.” “Even though I was really anxious, I knew that our team would have my back.”
The squad was greeted with wild cheers at the UVM Patrick Gym lobby on Sunday afternoon.
According to Cournoyer, “it was special when we walked in and saw all those other athletes from all those other teams there to support these athletes.” “It will be a memory they will cherish for the rest of their lives that they were once the center of attention.”
