“It was obviously really hard to be told by our administration that we weren't good athletes and so to kind of move past that and like to recognize that we are. “I think the biggest adjustment is mindset,” Kelly said. Instead, they continued to work with Beekman’s message that the team wasn’t good enough ringing in their head during every practice or meet.
However, the difference in practice conditions did not hinder the former varsity swimmers’ mentality. The practices were individually led since there was no coach and did not have the same intensity as the former D1 swimmers were accustomed to from previous years of competing.
The team would practice four times a week at IM West, the same pool where MSU Swimming and Diving used to compete. However, as their pleas continued to fall on deaf ears within MSU administration, they embraced the club team completely. The club swim and dive team received an influx of division one talent in the fall and start of the second semester as the former swimmers and divers looked for a way to stay active in the pool to stay ready in case the program was reinstated during the year. We're still here, we're still in shape enough to win at the club level, which means we're definitely in shape enough to compete at our own conference.” “It should show (the university) that we, the varsity swimmers and divers, are still ready to compete. “The win really meant a lot because I can control how I swim individually, but that requires everybody to put forth a collective effort to get us that team win and that means a lot when everyone really cares and it shows that we're still a team - and that we're a competitive team,” Nitkiewicz said. The Spartans won 20 individual events on their way to the overall crown, including six event wins from juniors Travis Nitkiewicz and Kasey Venn, five event wins from sophomore Stephan Freitag and four event wins from sophomore Sydney Kelly, all of whom were competing for the varsity team last year. MSU’s club swim and dive team won the 2022 College Club swimming national championship this past weekend in Atlanta with the help of over a dozen former varsity swimmers. Members that stuck around this year won a national championship for the university as a part of the club swim and dive team. Over the last 540 days since the program was cut, there has been a steady stream of team members imploring the Board of Trustees to listen to them and reconsider, the women filed a Title IX lawsuit against the university.
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