JAMESTOWN, NY - Jamestown Community College's men's and women's swimming and diving teams return to the regional championship waters this weekend as they travel to Monroe Community College for events on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The men's team finished third last year while the women finished runner-up. Each squad return some heavy hitters entering the 2024 title tilts.

The ladies enter the meets with a perfect 9-0 mark in conference action and have three swimmers with top-of-the-podium experience from last year. Lindsey Spitz earned three first and a second individually and was part of two relay teams that brought home gold. That experience has the sophomore talking about lofty expectations, "I am expecting our girls to come in first place over. Individually, I took first place in three events and second in one event. I want to take first in all four events this year," said Spitz. Stacey Blackler is also back for the Jayhawks after a 2023 regional where she claimed a first, two seconds, and a pair of third-place finishes. The native South African will be a key component to another strong showing. Not to be outdone, the reigning Swimmer of the Meet and Year, Madison Kramer, is also pumped for another chance at gold. "Definitely to win. I think the girls have a good shot at doing that," said the Falconer product. Kramer appeared at the top of the mountain in all five of her events in last year's regionals. Those three sophomores will be joined by Hayley Dawson, Ella Fosberg, Anna Jones, and Paiden Wittmeyer in the pool. JCC also features a pair of divers who are re-writing the program record books in Ashlynn Swan and Shaylyn Owens.

On the men's side, they're also aiming for the top spot. The guys are led by sophomore Maxim Johnson, who earned the Swimmer of the Meet and Year honors in 2023 while helping the men finish third as a team. Johnson captured those honors with five first-place finishes and a pair of seconds. Turning the silver into gold is a motivation for the South African, "More personal best. hopefully, win Swimmer of the Meet and Swimmer of the Year." Johnson is joined on the men's squad by fellow sophomores Lukas Baer and Brady Lindstrom. That trio heads a group of four freshmen: Toby Gifford, Randall Hall, Rinat Kalimullin, and Colton Schuman.

It doesn't matter which team you talk to, men or women, they all agree keeping up a rigorous practice routine is one of their keys to success. "I feel like achieving that is all the hard work I have put in all year. Being at practice every day and working hard. I mean, just eating well while we are there, getting lots of rest, and making sure we are warming up and cooling down good, said Spitz. "More hard work, We need to learn how to swim tired. There is going to be a lot of strain on our bodies, and not a lot of rest between races. It is learning how to stay focused and keep your mind in the game when you are really tired," added Johnson.

While the men and women compete separately, they do have one main goal above the rest. "This is our first championship meet. This is the next step of our journey. We had lofty goals at the beginning of the year to win the regional championship for both the men and the women, and that is the goal. We are hoping to come home with a team title as the men and women combined. That is the goal from day one. I think we are ready for this step," said head coach Todd Conklin

Day one of the regionals is slated for Friday at Monroe Community College. Days two and three will be on Saturday and Sunday. If you'd like to watch, Monroe streams its events on their website.