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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SWIMMING MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 16, 2015Whitney HiteTHE MODERATOR: Women's Swimming Coach, Whitney Hite is here and will take questions. COACH HITE: Great time for us and our program, exciting to get down to the end. All signs are point to go conference and NCAAs. We use conference as a stepping stone for NCAA championships, but certainly we want to perform at a high level at our conference meet and really excited to see Ivy Martin perform, Aja Van Hout, our seniors have been great this year. Katie Delaney and Caroline Palm, and it's just‑‑ I think we're ready to go and swim fast and dive well and we'll see what that brings. Q. You read this and it's Ivy Martin, Ivy Martin, Ivy Martin. How good is she? Obviously she stands out in the Big Ten but nationally or worldwide how good is Ivy Martin? COACH HITE: She's gettin' better. Right now I think she is 12th in the world in the 50 Free. She has come a long way. It's been fun to see her development from a local girl to one of the best swimmers in the world. I will say that I've been around some really, really talented swimmers, whether it be Natalie Coughlin, Olympic Gold Medalists, American Record Holders, NCAA Women Of The Year, NCAA Swimmer Of The Year, from my time at Georgia. I've seen some really, really fast swimmers. I believe she is as good as I've seen. I've been around. She is as good as there is, in my opinion. Q. Outside of Ivy, she did have a good championships the last season who else are you looking for, names of the women that you think would have a good championships this year? COACH HITE: Well, we've got‑‑ we've got a good team. It's more based on‑‑ it's more of a championship team. Conference is a little bit more towards depth. But certainly Danielle Valley, who is an incoming transfer mid‑year, she is a very, very good swimmer; Dana Grindall, who has had a heck of a year; Aja Van Hout will help us; Jenny Holtzen has had a terrific year. The fun part is we've swum well all year so there is no real indication that that would change, but it is‑‑ we've got‑‑ we've got our sophomore girls, it's a very strong class, Anna Meinholz, Annie Tamblyn, because we have a smaller team in numbers. The fun part is everyone is counted on to do really well. We need everybody. Ashley Peterson, our diver has‑‑ Anton has done a terrific job of that, developing her into one of the better divers in this conference. The diving in this conference is arguably the best in the country. So it will be exciting to see pretty much everyone have a piece in our success. Q. What's the object with this group? It's been a successful dual meet season on both sides, the men and the women, and they have had some win and some notable races. COACH HITE: For us, we have such a challenging dual meet season, our motto is if we want to be the best, we gotta beat the best, and we're not afraid to challenge ourselves in that way. Everything is in preparation for NCAAs and leading up to that, so the more times I can put them in pressure situations the better, the better we are at the end. I really think that one of the turning points for the women's team was the dual meet against Indiana. Indiana is a very, very food team and they're very well coached and to only come up short by one point is pretty impressive, and I think they started to realize what I thought all along; how good they are. So it's a good time because it was late January to start believing and knowing that you're as good as I've tried to tell them all year. Q. Would you take us through the recruiting process with Ivy? Madison kid, must have been an easy sell for her to come here, was it? COACH HITE: The thing with me is I wasn't hired. Eric Hansen, the former coach, he recruited her. For someone who is 23.1, 23.2 in the 50‑free coming in, that's pretty average. We didn't really know what we had, and she is still developing, which is the fun part. We're still working on her 100 Free, 100 Free long course. I have tried to develop her in the 200; she doesn't really like that, but it's helped her 50. Her 100 Fly has gone from 57 to ‑‑ I wouldn't be surprised if she breaks a 52 second mark in the 100 Fly. It is really‑‑ we've got three seniors this year that are all from Madison, Aja, Ivy and Jude Tedites, and they've all been terrific for our program. That's really important. Anytime you can get a kid from Wisconsin, much less Madison, I think that's really special. I give Eric all the credit. He did a great job with the recruiting and this place‑‑ one of the things that I really like about Wisconsin, I really feel passionately that the student‑athletes here do it the right way. You got knuckle heads all over the country that are getting in trouble and their grades are terrible and this place really‑‑ it's for people that get it. If they're serious about their academics, they're serious about being an elite athlete, and I know that we may not get the best darn athlete, the top‑rated linebacker or power forward or whoever, but we get really intelligent kids that are focused in the right way and it's just‑‑ you know, you take Ivy, Ivy represents everything that is right in college athletics, everything. She goes to one of the best schools in the country, she gets great grades, she works hard, she is humble, super intelligent, super motivated. That's the type of people that I want to be around and that's what makes this place so great. Q. Will you be coaching Ivy in the World Championships and is she Olympic caliber? Would you be surprised if she makes the Olympic team? COACH HITE: She is on the World Championship team along with Michael Weiss, who is training with us, former Badger, the three of us will be going over to Russia this summer, yes, and, you know, one of the reasons we tried to develop her 100 so much is they usually take the top‑six in the 100. In the 50 they only think the top two. 50 is quick and a lot can happen. I don't want to the‑‑ she's got a shot. I think her trajectory is good, as far as she keeps getting better. Got a ways to go but she has got a shot. Q. You talk about swimming fast and do get best you can in each race, letting it go. In your mind what would define a successful championship season? What are you looking for at the Big Ten specifically? COACH HITE: Good question. You know, we just want to make sure‑‑ the women have a goal of 400 points at the Championships. That would be really good. I don't focus on points or place, it's how many people we can get to the next step, for us. I think if we could come away with, you know, six qualifiers and four relay alternates, that would be really good. It would be more than last year. As long as we get the right people to the next step, NCAAs, I think that's success. I think that, again, we use that as a step, as a learning process for the next‑‑ for the end, and I think that being able to manage a three‑day meet, being able to manage your emotions, learning a little bit, even Ivy is still learning and picking up pieces along the way. That's really important. As a coach, the team knows that I'm never satisfied. I'm the guy that is always saying, hey, well, we can be better. When Drew won a couple years ago it was like, that was great, and on the drive home three hours later I'm thinking what can I do to get him better? And they know that's the way my brain operates. I don't know if I have a "what's success"? Success would be winning, and I don't think we're going to win, but a win for us is getting the people we need to at the meet and feeling good about it and ready to go for the Championships. THE MODERATOR: Anything else? Thanks, Whitney. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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