Eleven freshmen make up the men’s swimming class of 2011.

They combine with seven sophomores to be the bulk of this year’s team, which also has 13 upperclassmen.

“We had no idea that the freshman group was going to be this big, and the best overall freshmen we’ve had in a while,” said senior Tim O’Hagan, who specializes in the butterfly.

Last year’s freshman class only lost one recruit.

Senior Matt Latham, who specializes in the freestyle races, is excited about working with freshmen Matt Scaliatine, who specializes in the individual medley and breaststroke, and Jayson Shine, who specializes in the freestyle and the butterfly races.

“Those two combined offer great competition and even better practice for other teammates to swim against,” Latham said. “It is really easy to push someone to the next level when they have to compete against someone like that on a daily basis.”

Junior Neil Wahlgren, who specializes in the freestyle and the butterfly races, also spoke about freshman Caleb Arthur, who specializes in the butterfly race.

“There are a couple freshmen who are going to replace sprint guys we lost since last season,” Wahlgren said. “They should compete with or break last year’s records.”

Last year’s team finished third place at the Mid-Continent Championship with a 5-6 dual record.

The upperclassmen want nothing less than perfect this year after losing the team’s top senior swimmer, Bill Senese, last season. The Panthers graduated four seniors from last year and there are only four seniors left this year.

Senese broke or helped break records in the 50- and 100-yard freestyles, the 100-yard backstroke and the 200-yard freestyle relay.

With coming to Lantz Natatorium on Friday there are only a few more days of training left.

O’Hagan went on to explain how much better the team’s attitudes and work ethics are compared to years past.

Latham was Senese’s No. 2 man last year in the freestyle relay, and returned to take the top spot.

As of right now the men’s relay spots for Friday’s meet against the Jaguars consist of Latham, junior Joe Ethington, sophomore Matt Crittenden, and still an open spot to be filled sometime this week because of Senese’s graduation.

“We’re going to try switching around returning sophomores and juniors to have them swim new events like the (500-meter freestyle) and (the one mile) to improve in distance events, but we’ll need the depth from our new teammates in order to cover points and spreads,” Latham said.

O’Hagan said he has been training even harder in hopes to shatter records this season.

The team is expected to return some other top swimmers. One of those is junior Brent Noble who swam the individual medley and breaststroke last season. Other swimmers returning are junior Pat LeNeave in the butterfly and individual medley, senior Elliot McGill in the individual medley and backstroke and senior Nick Scarpetta in the freestyle.

Senior Joseph Laird spins in the air during the swimming and diving teams first practice of the season Monday evening in the Lantz Natatorium.

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