Most coaches spout cliches about taking each regular-season contest one game at a time.

Not Lou Walker.

Instead, the Syracuse swimming and diving coach admits he overlooks regular-season meets with an eye toward the postseason.

Now, SU can finally focus on the meet at hand. The Big East Championships will take place this weekend.

Twenty-six Syracuse swimmers and divers qualified for the three-day championships, and they’ll be working to improve on last year’s middling 8th-place finish. The meet will be held today through Saturday at the Nassau County Aquatics Center in Uniondale.

Syracuse has been training for the championships since late November. Most other competitions during the spring season have been mere afterthoughts.

Syracuse’s training schedule was designed so its strength and conditioning would peak this week. That means at times this winter, SU performed in a different (and sometimes weaker) stage of conditioning than its opponents, many of whom it will face again this weekend.

‘We could have dropped down the workload and won the West Virginia meet,’ Walker said. ‘But then where would we be? Swimming slow at the Big East meet.’

Syracuse’s Jan. 25 loss to Connecticut and its mixed results against Seton Hall on Feb. 1 also resulted from its training regimen. Syracuse has rested 12 days since its last meet, so the rocky winter season may not be an indication of its performance at the Big East Championships.

Syracuse’s early success against non-conference teams made up for its Big East ambivalence. Syracuse dominated Colgate, Loyola, Johns Hopkins and St. Peter’s in the fall, and the Orangewomen opened the season with a win at St. Bonaventure.

‘We’ve accomplished our first goal,’ Walker said, ‘which was to have both teams post winning dual-meet records.’

The Orangewomen turned in a 7-2 record, and the Orangemen finished at 5-4.

The Orangemen finished their regular season with a blowout of Villanova on Feb. 8, providing momentum to ride into the Big East meet. The Orangewomen also had a strong performance against Villanova but were edged in the meet’s closing moments.

If Syracuse maintains the same confidence and heightened competitiveness it demonstrated against Villanova, its Big East foes may be in store for a surprise — and, possibly, some revenge.

‘We finished the season strong against Villanova,’ Walker said. ‘So we are confident going into the Big East Championship. We want to swim our best times and improve upon our finishes and times from a year ago.’

Published on February 19, 2003 at 12:00 pm