When Mike Shrader arrived at San Diego State 19 years ago, he took over a swimming and diving program stuck in last place in the Mountain West Conference — a collection of individuals, not a fully functioning team.
“We had a major partying problem,” Shrader said. “They were good kids. They just didn’t have the guidance or goals, and they didn’t know that the little things mattered…. A big part of the process is truly caring about your peers, your teammates.”
Today’s Aztecs, chasing a fifth straight Mountain West title, stand in stark contrast. Since 2011, the team has claimed nine conference championships and notched 75 consecutive dual-meet victories.
“We truly care about how each other does,” Shrader said. “That’s the real power in a team. It’s important, because how your teammates perform affects the team score, and it also gets the momentum going.”
“We’ve never been as close as a team before,” said senior captain Moa Bergdahl, SDSU’s top breaststroker and a multiple-time All-Mountain West honoree who ranks among the program’s best in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke and 200 individual medley. “We fit really well together, and everyone’s personality has a place on this team.”
Team’s bond goes a long way
Shrader credited the team’s bond for their undefeated 10-0 dual-meet record this season, highlighting captains Bergdahl, Abby Storm (senior, backstroke), Emily Tenczar (senior, butterfly) and diving captain Alina Skrocki (junior).
He said the captains have cultivated cohesion and reinforced the team’s process in ways both big and small, from hosting movie nights and baking cookies for homesick freshmen to organizing beach outings.
“Our captains are awesome, and they’ve done a good job of really leading the team,” Shrader said. “It all goes to the captains, because it’s really their team. The coaches do our part — practices, lineups, those kinds of things — but the captains have gone above and beyond.”
Abby Storm competes in a recent meet. (Photo by Derrick Tuskan/SDSU Athletics)“The cohesiveness of our team comes from our drive, and that’s really crucial for me to see,” Storm, a consistent top performer in the Mountain West 200 back, added. “It’d be easy to come into a program that’s had four straight conference wins and think, ‘Oh, well, we’re going to win — that’s just what we do.’
“But it’s not that simple. You have to have the humility to say, ‘Yeah, we’ve had a lot of success, but we have to do everything we can this year, just like any other year, to make that happen.’ It’s not just going to fall into our laps.”
The Aztecs return to the pool Feb. 18–21 in Houston for the Mountain West Championships.
“It’s hard coming into a team with our success rate, but people aren’t scared of it — they get motivated by it,” Bergdahl said.
“We don’t want it to be easy,” Storm added. “We want to be challenged — by our competitors in the conference and by each other. We push each other at practice, and that’s just the kind of athletes we are.”
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