Women’s swimming and diving is by far the most underrated varsity sports team at Tulane. The team’s athletes swim countless laps and give their best effort in seemingly endless workouts day in and day out.

Not only do the swimmers work out hard, they do so with very little appreciation from the Tulane community. A portion of the Tulane community is unaware of the fact that we even have a swim team.

Though the swimmers have a few home meets at Reily throughout the year, they rarely have a significant turnout. While the football, baseball and basketball teams enjoy larger crowds and busier stadiums, the swim team seeks success in relative silence.

Being a member of the Tulane swim team is just as rigorous as any other athletic team on campus. Their practices are intense and to be on the team requires drive, commitment and passion. Not only do these athletes need all of these attributes, they also do it all underwater. 

The Tulane swim team has forged an indelible bond through their hundreds of hours in the pool. Theirs is a team that clearly loves and supports each other. They’re basically Tulane’s fastest clique (no offense to the cross country and track teams, y’all are cool too).

Tulane women’s swimming is setting records. At the end of the 2014-15 season, senior Mia Schachter had her best performance where she achieved a new school record in the 100 free preliminaries with a time of 49.49 for a 47th place finish at the 2015 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, North Carolina. 

All of the swimmers on the team are deeply committed to a sport that demands early mornings, grueling workouts, maintaining a strong team grade point average and very little pomp and circumstance. They are an athletic inspiration.

The College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) honors teams with a GPA of over 3.0 and added Tulane to the list of fall honorees in 2014 for posting an overall GPA of 3.54, which ranked tied for fifth among the 143 recognized teams. 

The women kick off their season with an away meet at LSU on Friday. Show them some support in their first home meet of the season on Oct. 24 against Vanderbilt in the Reily Natatorium.