The Fresno State swimming and diving team will finally have
its own facility with the Aquatics Center opening up. Both
teams can pratice in the facility but there is still some
construction taking place.
Esteban Cortez / The Collegian

The Fresno State swimming and diving team finally has its own facility to call home. The Fresno State Aquatics Center is still under construction, but the pool is open for the Bulldogs to practice and compete next season.

Recently, the ‘Dogs have had to use the pools at Clovis North High School and Clovis West High School in order to get in their afternoon practices six days a week. The Bulldogs had to rent vans to be able to travel to both facilities. Since they couldn’t use their own facility, players sometimes were forced to miss practice because of conflicts in their class schedules.

The new facility, located adjacent to Bulldog Diamond, will provide the program with a larger pool and will allow for those who couldn’t previously practice more opportunities to get their time in the pool. Head coach Jeanne Fleck gave some thoughts on how she felt about the aquatic center.
“I love it,” Fleck, who was interviewed at the new facility, said. “It gives us an extra two hours in the day for our girls to have classes. We’re not driving and waiting for showers.”

The new facility is larger than the North Gym pool that the team has used before. The pool in the North Gym was only six lanes long and 11 feet deep. Also, the old pool was unavailable if a class was scheduled for that time. Now, the North Gym pool has since been closed down.

The Aquatics Center is large enough for swimming classes and practices to be held simultaneously, as well as diving to take place. With the size of the facility, the swimming and diving team will finally be able to host events on campus instead of traveling to the local high schools when competing schools come to town.

This semester the pool will only be open for physical education classes and members of the swimming and diving teams. Since construction is still taking place, the plans are to wait until January to allow more access. There will be lifeguards posted so that the public can use the area.

The Bulldogs’ first home meet will be on Saturday, Oct. 22 against Fresno Pacific. There will be an open house on the Friday before where fans will have the opportunity to watch both Fresno State and Fresno Pacific swim. The swim team is also scheduled to host Idaho and San Jose State this season.

With all the new features that the Aquatics Center offers, there are a few luxuries that were cancelled due to a time constraint. Divers will still have to travel to Clovis West High School to train and compete on the 10-meter tower. Currently, there are no immediate plans for shade structures, but since swimming is a winter sport, fans are expected to not be as affected.

Fresno State brought in some new talent in freshman Courtney Sheehan, a distance swimmer and freshman Lucy Titchin from England. Fleck talked a little about how the newcomers will fare this season.

“I think they’re really going make a huge impact right away,” Fleck said.