The Exponent Online


8/17/2001	Welcome Back Issue

Aquatic facility helps team

Kurt Esposito/ Assistant Campus Editor

DEEPEST BLUEST: The new Aquatic Center's diving tower has four springboards and five diving platforms and the diving tank is 17 feet at its deepest. The center — adjacent to the Recreational Sports Center — is scheduled to open 11:30 a.m. Monday.

By Kurt Esposito
Assistant Campus Editor

After two years of construction work, the new Aquatic Center is opening just in time for this fall semester.

Carol Stickel, director of the Division of Recreational Sports, said the center, adjacent to the Recreational Sports Center and on the sight of the old outdoor pool, will open at 11:30 a.m. Monday.

The center can be accessed from the sports center through a corridor at the back of the men's and women's locker rooms.

The $17.1 million facility has two pools — an 800,000-gallon competition pool and a 500,000-gallon diving tank.

It will be used by the Division of Recreational Sports, the department of health, kinesiology and leisure studies and Intercollegiate Athletics.

Previously the swimming and diving teams used the pool in the Lambert Fieldhouse.

"We'll be going from the worst pool in the division to one of the top 15 facilities in the country," said Tim Kelly, assistant men's swimming coach.

He said the new center would help the teams in competition and in recruiting.

He said the team would swim 80 percent of its meets at home this year, as opposed to last year when it swam 80 percent of its meets away.

David Fraseur, associate director of Division of Recreational Sports, said the competition pool has two movable bulkheads, which allow for flexibility between the needs of intercollegiate athletics, academic classes and recreational swimmers.

It also has eight 9-foot wide lanes as well as dry land space and a weight room for the swimming teams.

"It gives us the room to train our guys the way we want," said Kelly.

The diving tank has four diving springboards and five diving platforms at varying lengths from one meter to 10 meters and at its deepest will be 17 feet.

Kelly said it will be nice to have someone dive off the three meter springboard and not have to worry about his safety because the water is to shallow.

The center contains seating for 608 people, though as many as 1,100 people can watch meets if the facility has its portable stands. The center also has three types of lighting, including natural lighting.

Fraseur said, "That's a nice feature."

He said the windows contain inner blinds so the amount of sunlight coming in can be modified. He said lifeguards could sometimes have trouble seeing what is happening in the pool because of the glare off the water.

The pools will be open 6:15 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Some areas of the pools will be closed at certain times depending on intercollegiate athletics and academic classes.

The platform diving boards are off limits to the public at all times.

The center replaces the pool at the Lambert Fieldhouse and the pool inside the Recreational Sports Center — which are both now closed.

All funds for the center were raised through donations.

Stickel said an official dedication ceremony is scheduled for Oct. 26.

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