The Fresno State swimming and diving team will honor its seniors Saturday at the final home event of the regular season against San Jose State.
This will mark the final time that seniors Heidi Gjoen, Jordan Morillo and Dede Torres will compete at Fresno State as Bulldogs. The women will be the first class to compete with the team a full four years since it re-emerged in 2008 following a four-year hiatus.
The trio has seen the program grow from a team just trying to get enough swimmers to compete, into a program that is breaking school records.
The team has changed since its inaugural season.
Head coach Jeanne Fleck, who was hired in May of 2008, did her best to piece together a 20-player roster by August.
“The team has changed,” Fleck said. “About 90 percent of the girls from the first year wouldn’t make the team now. But all those girls from that first year really helped me build this program. Every one of them was so important.”
The swimmers, along with the program, have matured together quickly in the short-lived span of the team.
“The program has definitely developed,” Morillo said. “We have girls that have Olympic trial cuts and Senior National cuts.”
The change within the team is evident to everyone associated with the program.
“Our first year we had some people who didn’t swim in college or in high school, and we were all very fortunate to be on a team,” said Gjoen.
All three seniors’ roads to Fresno State are different. Gjoen, who is from Norway, was one of the first recruits that Fleck brought in.
Torres was recruited by Fleck while she attended Clovis East High School. The two had talked about the program after Torres competed in the California Interscholastic Federation Championships.
Morillo was planning on attending junior college before deciding on Fresno State two weeks before the beginning of her freshman school year.
The three have now become leaders through their four-year journey on the team, and all are on track to graduate. Gjoen and Torres are set to graduate this semester while Morillo will graduate in the fall.
“I think it’s huge, for not only as the three seniors, but for the program to set a precedent of graduating 100 percent of our athletes,” Torres said.
“They’re a big reason why we’re as successful as we are right now,” Fleck said.
The ‘Dogs are coming off a second-place finish at the University of San Diego Beach Cup. Junior diver Stacy Luke was named Verizon Diver of the Week for the week of Jan. 16-22 for her contributions during the event while breaking a school record.
The team will host San Jose State, which is 6-1 in head-to-head competitions this year. Fresno State will host the Spartans in its final competition before the Western Athletic Conference Championships on Feb. 22.