Tony Andersen said it was nice to get a taste of what it was once like to swim for the Hoosiers Saturday morning at the IU swimming and diving alumni swim meet.
Andersen, who captained the men’s team in 1984 and 1985, joined roughly 50 former swimmers and divers at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center for a morning of races and mingling with current and former Hoosiers.
This year marked the second time the swim program has held such an event. Christie Peterfish, a 2008 grad, organized the event last year in an effort to reconnect with other Hoosier swimming and diving alumni.
“Last year, we just decided to do it, and the turnout was pretty good,” Peterfish said. “The hardest part is just getting the word out to everyone.”
While the meet was an opportunity for current and former swimmers and divers to compete with and against one another, it also became a way to bridge different eras of Hoosier swimmers.
Dave Tanner, a 1972 grad and teammate of legendary IU swimmer Mark Spitz, coaches the swimming and diving team at Bloomington High School North and is among the older contingent of alumni. Current Hoosier senior Max Irwin swam under Tanner in high school.
Tanner had high praises for the meet and said he hopes more people from his era will stop by for the event in the future.
“I’m glad we started doing these reunions because it allows us to see some of the current swimmers, and also they can interact with us,” said Deryck Marks, class of 1987 and member of the Jamaican swim team that competed in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. “And if they have any questions, we’re here.”
Some of that interaction came by way of teaming up in relay events, and in the day’s first event, the mixed 200-yard medley, Tanner actually swam with Irwin.
The meet consisted of a full schedule of events that allowed Hoosiers new and old to compete with and against one another. Fred Schuster, class of 1986, insisted on signing up for as many events as he could, trying to take advantage of getting back in the pool.
Sophomore Adam Destrampe said that even though he feels a stronger connection to more recent alumni, having competed with them, he was excited about the opportunity to talk with older Hoosiers who built the program back in the days of legends Doc Counsilman and Hobie Billingsley.
“It’s nice to see all the alumni who just graduated because we know them so well. It’s almost as if we’re picking back up where we started.” Destrampe said. “It’s really nice to be able to share the tradition of IU swimming.”
Coupled with the nostalgia was a sense of pride among many of the alumni present felt in regards to the current status of IU’s program, especially after the success IU’s Olympians had in Rio this summer.
“It was an exciting summer for Indiana swimming,” Tanner said. “I was proud of the job that they did and what the coaches have done and the guys in the program. It’s just the best feeling in the world. I watched every bit of it.”
