The UMass Lowell Club Swimming Program dove into new waters last month when they attended Swim Club Nationals in Atlanta, Georgia. The event marked a definitive transition in River Hawks swimming from recreational activity to competition sport.

“It’s hard to be goal oriented and improve if you don’t have competition,” said Marta Taddeo, team head coach.

The competition took place at Georgia Tech’s pool, the site of the 1996 Olympic swimming events, and featured 67 teams and 1400 total swimmers. UMass Lowell was one only four teams from New England to attend the event. According to Taddeo, the River Hawks found themselves swimming against powerhouse club programs the like of Florida and Colorado.

“We knew we were going to be big underdogs,” said team captain, Janelle Gillespie. “But we performed well.”

Many of the UMass Lowell swimmers were motivated by the grand stage and recorded personal best times at Nationals. The ten River Hawk swimmers who attended competed in both individual and relay races. Taddeo was pleasantly surprised by her swimmers times and also proud of their demeanor.

“They were one of the most professionally behaved teams at the meet,” said the coach.

The range of experience among UMass Lowell’s swimmers is fairly wide. Some had been swimming since participating on high school teams, while others were completely new to the world of competitive swimming.

Theresa Fullerton, the club’s secretary, was one of the more experienced swimmers on the team.

“I swam all through high school and this has been a great way to keep swimming,” she said.

Despite the varying experience, the River Hawk swimmers developed remarkable team chemistry as a result of the competition. 17 hours on a bus each way to Georgia has a way of building team bonding, said Gillespie.

Long road trip, getting to Georgia was no easy task from Taddeo and her team.

“I was amazed that we were even able to raise the funds to make the trip,” she said.

Unlike varsity sports, that receive considerable school funding and athlete scholarships, club sports have to rely on other resources. To finance the trip to Nationals, the River Hawks went on a fast paced fundraising campaign that brought in $5000 in two months.

The long list of fundraising events included: two home swims meets, service events, a letter writing campaign, weekly bake sales, a swim-a-thon where they swam over 1500 lengths as a group, and a 50 / 50 raffle.

“It’s been tough, I’ll tell you that,” said Gillespie of the fundraising efforts. Nevertheless, the team captain acknowledged that competition made the fundraising worthwhile and hopes to return to Nationals next year.

“We have tons of room to grow,” she said. “I’d love to see 20 [swimmers] at Nationals next year.”

While acknowledging the challenges in balancing schoolwork and sports commitments, all of UMass Lowell’s current swimmers are on board for expanding the program. Adding team depth may be a realistic short term goal, but a varsity swim team at UMass Lowell is a distant thought, according to Taddeo.

“We would need a new facility to have a chance at going varsity, and a lot goes into that, a means of recruiting would be helpful too,” she said.

Though planning for the future is important, Taddeo is content to bask in the present success and strides made with this year’s swim team.

“When you see that people want to be part of something like this, it is well worth it,” she said.