Years of planning, hoping and wishing should pay off this season for Head Coach Matt Anderson and the 2009-10 Youngstown State swimming and diving team. Anderson has worked diligently in his first six years to have a strong and deep squad in all events, and that could come to fruition this season.
 

The Penguins have depth in the freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and Individual Medley, which means they have great numbers and options for the relays. Also, five divers are on the roster this season, a big improvement after having just one healthy competitor all of last year.
 

Now, the hard part will be trying to find the right lineup to help the Guins have a successful dual-meet campaign and, enter the Horizon League Championships in late February with chances to score as many points as possible and not only remain in the top five squad at the Horizon League Championships in late February, but climb the standings ladder as well.
 

“They’re going to have to be at their best in order to earn a spot,” Anderson said of his lineup options. “That’s what we’ve been shooting for over the last six years. Everyone is going to have to earn their spot instead of someone automatically getting it. That’s what we’ve been shooting for and now we’ve finally got it. Hopefully we can make it work for us the way we’ve been planning.”
 

Eleven letterwinners are back from last year’s team that placed fifth at the League Championships for the third consecutive year. Joining the mix are 12 newcomers – eight swimmers and four divers – to give the squad 23 competitors, the most since Anderson came aboard in 2002.
 

“It’s going to be great. I’ve never dealt with it before,” Anderson said. “It’s the largest squad we’ve had since I’ve been here, and it’s definitely the most swimmers we’ve had since I’ve been here. It’s going to be fun to see the combinations that we can do and the different places that we can put people. Part of the fun of it is that some of the new people on the team are multi-event swimmers that are going to be people we can move around a lot. We’re going to have some options that we’ve never had before. That’s going to be something that kind of develops as we go through the season and see where they fit well and what they’ll be able to do.”
 

In 2009-10, the Guins have just two seniors in Jennifer Johnstone (breaststroke) and Hilary Barrett (Distance Free, IM). Anderson said those two are the primary leaders, but the six juniors and four sophomores will also be counted on to help lead the way.
 

“We’re probably going to be dependent on pretty much every upperclassmen to take a role in leadership this year,” Anderson said. “With 12 new people on the team, it’s going to take more than just two people to really lead. They’re a good freshman class, and they’ve got some leaders within, but they’re still freshmen. So they still need some guidance, and it’s too much for just two people to handle.”
 

“Hilary and Jen are both going to do a good job for us in that role. They’re just going to need some help.”
 

Juniors Ashley Williamson and Caitlin Cook headline the team in the butterfly. Williamson is the school-record holder in the 100 fly, while Cook owns the school mark in the 200.
 

At the 2009 HL Championships, Williamson placed fourth in the 100-yard butterfly with a school-record time of 56.68 seconds. It was her second career top-five finish after coming in second as a freshman. Cook battled a nagging shoulder injury last year and returned to compete at the conference meet. She placed sixth in the 200 with a school-best time of 2:08.78.
 

Johnstone returns to anchor a young and talented breaststroke group. She placed 15th in the 100 at the league meet before finishing 22nd in the 200. Johnstone’s performance at the HL Championship in the 100 (1:07.83) helped set a new school mark. She ranks fourth in the 200.
 

Freshmen Rachel Tano, Samantha Roberts and Liseli Baich will help solidify that event. Tano set her school record in the 100 breast while Baich also broke her school’s record in the 100 that had stood for 20 years. Roberts placed 12th at the Indiana State Championships in the 100 while also setting her school mark in the discipline. Entering the season, Tano and Roberts had times in high school that would be considered YSU all-time bests.
 

Also counted on in the breast will be multi-eventer Rachel Harbarger, sophomore Katie Wolf and junior Kari Tridle. Tridle competed in both the 100 and 200 early last year. Wolf competed in 10 different events as a freshman a year ago.
 

“We’re going to be able to leave Jen in the breast events and rotate some other people,” Anderson said. “It’s going to make for some good depth in that area.”
 

The backstroke is an event that could see some strong improvement.
 

Sophomore Nishani Cicilson will lead the way after competing in the FINA World Championships in Rome this past summer. Representing her native Suriname, she placed 69th in the 50-meter backstroke and 77th in the 100-meter back. Overall, she participated in five events against the best the world has to offer. At her first Horizon League meet, she was 13th in the 100 back with a time of 59.91 seconds, the second fastest in school history.
 

Freshman Amanda Ritzenthaler is a newcomer to watch in the back. At the Ohio Division II State Championships, she was 12th in the 100 after finishing eighth in the event as a junior. She is the Bay Village High School school-record holder in the event.
 

Sophomore Audria Grubbs stepped in at the conference meet, placing 21st in the 100. Cook swam the backstroke early last year before focusing on the fly. Williamson has been a top-10 placer in both backstroke events in her two seasons. At the league meet in 2008, she placed fourth in the 200 and fifth in the 100 back while setting school records in both. In 2009, Williamson placed seventh in the 200 yard back and fourth in the 100. Harbarger could see time in the lineup as well.
 

The freestyle events feature depth at sprint, middle and distance. Last year, the Guins had scoring power in the distance with Olivia Arnold and Natasha Bray leading the way in the 500, 1,000 and 1,650 freestyles.
“Having both Olivia and Natasha graduate in the same year presents a challenge of replacing both of them,” Anderson said. “Quite honestly, we don’t have an answer for that yet. We’ve got some good depth in that distance freestyle area to where it’s not like we are going to be hurting there, but we’re just not going to have the power like we had there. The one-two punch of those two was great, and they could almost win any race that they got into.
 

“We’re going to have people that are going to compete in those events still. We’re looking for the other events to step up. We’re probably not going to have any true power people, but we’re going to have more depth in everything.”
 

Cicilson leads the way in the sprint freestyle events – the 50 and 100. Last year she had the third-fastest time in the 50 free and the fifth best in the 100 in school history. Cicilson swam the 50 and 100 meters at the World Championships as well. She was 78th in the 50 and 92nd in the 100. At the HL Championships, she placed 12th in the 50 free and 13th in the 100.
 

Freshmen Soyriah Davis, Baich and Grubbs will figure into the lineup. Anderson said Grubbs is already ahead of her best times at the end of last year. She placed 20th in the 200 yard free last year at the Horizon League meet.
 

Kirstin Walker, Barrett, Katie Bechtel, Harbarger, Alana Kane, Megan Palmer and Wolf will all figure in the mix in the freestyle as well.
 

Walker was a key contributor on relays and swam the 100, 200 and 500 at conference. Her best finish came in the 100 where she finished 15th. Kane swam the 100 and 200 frees at last year’s league meet. Wolf swam the 1,000 and 1,650 at conference as well as the 400 IM.
 

Bechtel will jump into the longer freestyle events while Palmer will be more of a middle-distance swimmer. Bechtel was a three-time state qualifier while Palmer broke a long-standing record at Boardman High in the 500.
 

Tano, Roberts, Wolf and Barrett will be among many competing in the individual medley. Barrett and Wolf competed in the 400-yard IM at the Horizon League Championships last year while Johnstone was the lone Guin to swim in the 200 IM.
 

Junior Amanda Carpin was the lone healthy diver in the program last year and was forced to carry the load the entire campaign. This year reinforcements join the program in junior college transfer Nikki Burelli and freshmen Molly Wroblewski, Casey Hill and Jacqueline Smith.
 

“The numbers at that spot is going to be huge,” Anderson said. “We have five divers right now, and a couple of them we’re going to have to wait and see what they can do. We’re going to be looking at having a diving program equivalent to what we had five years ago. Since Kalyn (Leveto) left, that’s obviously been a gap for us. Right now we’re looking for that gap to be filled in.
 

“Even if we can’t get somebody like Kalyn whose going to win it right away, we can fill that spot with four or five people who are going to score top eight points for us to make up for that.”
 

Carpin finished ninth in the one-meter competition at the Horizon League Championships with a score of 206.65 while placing 11th in the three-meter competition with a score of 198.75. She helped the Guins pick up 15 points in the league meet with her two finishes. Contrary to YSU, league-runner-up Milwaukee had five divers earn points in both dives. Green Bay, UIC and Cleveland State each had two score at the HL meet. Anderson said he is expecting her to have a better campaign than last year. Her high scores for 2008-09 were 239.00 in the three meter and 232.00 in the one meter.
 

Burelli had a standout career at Orange Coast College in California before transferring to YSU in August. Burelli will not be able to compete in the first semester, but can practice with the squad and is eligible in January. She was the California JUCO 2008 State Champion in one-meter and three-meter.
 

Anderson expects Hill to make an immediate impact. Hill placed seventh at the 2009 Class AAA Pennsylvania state meet in the one meter. She broke a 29-year-old school mark as a sophomore and kept eclipsing it through her senior year at Liberty High in Bethlehem, Pa. She was a top-10 finisher at districts all four years.
 

Wroblewski had offseason ankle surgery but should be healthy to contribute by January. She was the WPIAL Class AA Champion as a senior and was a four-time Pennsylvania State and WPIAL qualifier. She finished fifth at the PIAA Class AA meet as a junior in the one meter.
 

Smith is a work-in-progress after spending years out of the pool as a track and field athlete and a gymnast. In gymnastics, she was an Ohio State Champion in her age group at various levels.
 

“What they do could make up for Olivia and Natasha so we can fill that spot with diving instead of swimming,” he said. “Points are points.”
 

Under Anderson, YSU has set school marks in all five relays – the 200-yard medley, the 400-yard medley, 200-yard freestyle, the 400 free and the 800 free (on numerous occasions). Of the five, four were eclipsed at the 2009 Horizon League Championships.
 

The Guins’ best relay finish last year at the league meet was fourth in the 400 free.
 

With greater numbers, options are abound for various lineups this year.
 

“Our medley relay has more options than it ever has,” Anderson said. “It’s going to be kind of exciting to see what happens with all of it and see who ends up taking some of those roles.”