The Ashland University swimming and diving team is gearing up and heading to Waterford Township, Michigan for the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships this week.

The four-day meet begins on Wednesday and will go through Saturday, Feb. 13.

This is the second season for new head coach Derick Roe, who began his career with the Eagles in 2014 after spending the 2013-2014 seasons as the interim head swimming and diving coach at Ohio University.

‘Things this year have been going so smoothly and everyone has a great attitude,” said senior Hannah Mattar. “We are excited about what we are going to be able to do at GLIAC’s this year. We have done such a great job coming together as a team and we have made some really big improvements.”

Throughout the 2015-2016 season, the Eagles have not defeated many GLIAC teams with their overall score, although in swimming, those dual and tri meets are used primarily in preparation for the post season.

The team uses the other meets as a warm up for the meet in Michigan and have been tapering throughout the back half of the season.

“It does not matter what your record is in swimming,” said Mattar. “We always try to win the dual meets, but in the grand scheme of the whole season, we train through those meets and have the overall goal of using those to get ready to come out on top over Findlay and Saginaw and the teams we fell to this season.”

The Eagles have proved to have some consistent athletes winning events every week. Senior Kaylyn Murphy claimed the GLIAC Female Swimmer of the Week for two consecutive weeks this season.

“She is doing better than ever,” said Mattar. “She is an extremely hard worker and I love being able to train with her. I am really excited to see what she does this weekend.”

In the tri-meet versus Hillsdale and Saginaw Valley State, Murphy won three events including the 200-yard, 100-yard and 50-yard freestyle.

The week before, Murphy claimed first in four of her events against Malone and Urbana; the 200-yard medley relay, 200 and 50 freestyle and the 100-yard backstroke.

Mattar has continued to find success in the wake of her senior season for the Eagles, placing first in almost every event at every meet she took part in this season.

She opened with a strong performance at Findlay placing first in three events and shortly after, claimed first in the 100-yard breaststroke at the Eagle’s home opener against Wayne State.

Her success continued at the Eastern Michigan Invitational where she placed first in the 400 free and the 200-yard breaststroke. Mattar also placed first in the 500-yard free at the tri-meet with Malone and Urbana and first in the 400-yard free versus Hillsdale and Saginaw Valley State.

Mattar was also the only Eagle to compete at nationals in the 2014-2015 season.

“We want to place better than we did last year,” said Mattar. “Last year we only had one person go and having more of us go will be really great for the team. This season has all been leading up to us getting our best times, that is what it is all about.”

If all goes well for the Eagles this week, members of the team have a chance to qualify for the NCAA Championships which will take place in Indianapolis, Indiana beginning on March 8.