The Penn State women's swimming team has been exceeding expectations all season long. There are many reasons why the No. 14 Nittany Lions are ranked below teams that did not send as many swimmers to the NCAA Championships, but the fact remains that only the top four teams sent more.
Schools like Georgia, Auburn, Texas, Florida and Stanford are traditional swimming powerhouses from swimming conferences.
Wisconsin may be home to Olympic Champion Carly Piper and Michigan may be home to 12 straight Big Ten championships, but those five schools have won all but one NCAA team championship -- 22 of 23.
This trend continued at this year's NCAA meet, which Georgia won with 609.5 points. Auburn finished second, with Arizona, Florida and Stanford following. Penn State finished in 13th, short of their top-10 goal.
After sending the most swimmers to the NCAA meet in school history and coming away with a finish head coach Bill Dorenkott called disappointing, one wonders whether or not Penn State can make a national splash on a permanent basis.
"[It takes] a sustained effort over time," Dorenkott said. "Not a whole lot of flash, just a year-round commitment to the sport."
Penn State is at an admitted disadvantage, however, in terms of program-building. The campus is not equipped with an Olympic-sized pool or diving facilities necessary to host a big competition.
"If we get a new facility, we'll compete for a national championship," Dorenkott said.
Dorenkott also called it an "embarrassment" that Penn State did not host the PIAA high school swimming championships due to poor facilities. Instead, Bucknell will host the event.
In addition, State College is a place that is not easy for many teams to get to, making it harder to schedule meets with the best teams. When it is 20 degrees and snowing, most teams would prefer to stay in, or travel to, a more temperate climate.
This season, the team was somewhat rushed in finishing a meet with Rutgers, who was concerned with driving in a snowstorm.
And Rutgers is only a few hours' drive away.
Facilities and commitment are two important parts of the puzzle, but looking to the swimmers themselves is an obvious step.
"There's a certain kind of person that fits in well with Penn State, and it doesn't always have to do with who has the most talent," Dorenkott said.
Yet Dorenkott said that one of his goals for the future is to recruit the type of swimmer who can compete against top-level teams.
However, he did say that it was not meant to be a slight to the current swimmers.
"That's not a slam on our kids," Dorenkott said. "You look at the rate of improvement that we get out of our athletes, it far exceeds 99 percent of the country. [But] we have some gals that are hitting on eight cylinders [just] to get to the NCAA meet."
Dorenkott sees the program's trend of engendering vast improvement among its swimmers, in addition to a dominant Big Ten championship meet performance that will make coming to Penn State more desirable. That is a tribute to Penn State's coaching staff, the final ingredient that goes into building an elite program.
"We're not the chest-thumping staff," Dorenkott said. "We do more with less. Less facility, less talent. We wear that with a badge of honor."
Dorenkott is now reconsidering how he will prepare for a national showing, starting with a more intense focus on the meet and following two steps: recruiting and setting the goals of the swimmers currently in the program.
"We're not talking about a major overhaul," Dorenkott said. "I want to make sure if were in that position again that we maximize our opportunity."
Prior to the NCAA meet, Dorenkott said that he saw it as an opportunity to gain more respect.
Returning to State College with a 13th-place finish was not a sign that the team did so.
Being able to do more with less can sometimes produce a champion and is sign that the groundwork is there to build an elite swimming program.
Yet, there are many steps to go before Penn State makes that jump.
