Artistic Swimming | 4/18/2024 11:53:00 AM

DENTON, Texas (April 18, 2024) - The Texas Woman's artistic swimming team closed their fourth competitive season with breaking program records and making history for TWU athletics. 

Fifteen swimmers, one team.  

"Our team goal was to take advantage of the new scoring system and shake things up a bit," junior and team captain Ashley Latchford said. "I feel like we made smart decisions throughout the season; we are all students of our sport, so there was a lot of strategy talk back and forth to get as much difficulty into our routines without being too greedy. By nationals, we had strong, consistent routines that bumped us up to overall third in the nation, and we could not be more proud."

Latchford, who came to TWU with national team experience after representing the United States in 2020 and 202, led the Pioneers to a historic 2024 season. The junior from Buffalo, New York, represented TWU in the duet, trio and team event this season. 

"This year I got the chance to lead Team Minerva to success," Latchford said. "As Captain, you have to keep your team focused and motivated, but you yourself have to demonstrate that in confidence. There were hard days when giving up was an easy option, but our team would pull energy and love from each other to keep going and come back to practice the next day. My team depended on me, but I relied on them one hundred percent more. I would not be where I am without them. I learned to trust my teammates and my coach's decisions so that I could lead the team to our goals."

Surpassing their own expectations, team Minerva was able to showcase base mark free team routine with a degree of difficulty of 44 points in an incredible environment like Lewisville was on Friday, May 22. 

"Our goal was 40 DD and no base marks at Collegiate Nationals and we ended up doing 44 with no base marks," Maribella Falconer said. "The crowd was so loud! It energized my teammates and I to have our best swim of the season." 

One Team. 

For the first time in program history TWU was able to have two team routines representing the institution at the national stage, team Minerva and team Oakley. Even though swimmers were divided into two teams, the goal was always a common one for all 15 swimmers. 

"One of our motto was 'One Team'," Falconer said. "Although we had two teams for the first time, we worked together everyday and supported each other through everything. It represented our unity and combined commitment to the sport. As a team we really supported each other and became closer. We had better communication in and outside of the pool, and kept each other accountable and honest to improve."

Adversity is no stranger to this group. The Pioneers not only had to face the challenges of the new scoring system, but they also had to overcome and adapt after injuries. 

"We had to adapt and learn how to do the routine without a swimmer since we had an unexpected injury," Sophomore from Guadalajara, Spain Eva Fernandez-Montenegro Serrano said. "We were able to come together and make the changes that made sense to everyone. We also took in consideration who would be affected the most with those changes and made sure they were okay with them." 

"This season I really learned how to be patient," Fernandez-Montenegro Serrano said. "My team was patient with me and showed me that we were all an important piece of the team, and I learned it from them, so I will always be grateful."

This group of young athletes set expectations and goals at the beginning of the season that were clearly achieved, but this is only the beginning for this growing team. 

"My goal this season was to enjoy the amazing opportunity that I have been given to be a student-athlete, improve my artistic swimming skills and performance with the new system and give my all at the pool, so I could be proud of myself at the end of the season," Ada Monteys Vinardell said. "I am already looking forward to continuing to improve not only in my skills but in my confidence when swimming next season. I also want to make sure I enjoy the process more because it goes by really fast."

Athletes shared some of their favorite moments in and out of the pool this year. 

"My favorite artistic swimming moment this season was definitely at nationals before our last ever run through and how all the teams and universities were cheering for us," Monteys Vinardell said. "It is something I had not felt at nationals before. I will never forget all the outside activities we did as a team throughout the season."

"One of my favorite memories outside the pool was Boo at the U!," Fernandez-Montenegro Serrano said. "It is such a cool activity we get to share with all student-athletes. My favorite artistic swimming memory this season was the Pioneer Pal revealing and accomplishing our first run through of the season."

"Outside of the pool my favorite memories with the team were building a fire pit, celebrating birthdays together, going dancing with my teammates and going to the Texas State Fair," Falconer said. 

"My favorite experience was swimming in the team finals at Nationals," Latchford shared. "We were so pumped and ready, and we knew anything could happen. When we walked out to swim, the crowd was so loud, I remember screaming our counts so that the team could hear me. There was so much love in that pool. We had the best swim and received our highest score of the season with zero base marks. That was our goal and we achieved it. There were mixed emotions: relief, happiness, sadness because the season was over and it was Makayla's last swim, but most of all we were proud of what we had just done and it was time to celebrate the whole season."

The Pioneers also recognized and celebrated their very first senior in program history. Makayla Crichton, who was the true Pioneer for the Artistic Swimming team, put an end to her Collegiate journey writing history for TWU. Crichton was the first ever artistic swimmer to commit to the program back in 2020. 

One team writing history for TWU's artistic swimming.

-PIONEERS-