Last year, the Rowan University men’s swimming and diving team took home first place in the Metropolitan Championships (METs). This year, the hope is not only that they repeat, but that the women’s team will also be taking home some hardware.

This weekend, both the men’s and the women’s swimming and diving teams will be traveling to Piscataway, New Jersey to take part in METs.

Head coach Brad Bowser has been mentioning the championships all season long and has tailored the teams’ training this week to help them succeed.

“Things are looking good,” Bowser said. “We’ve been going through the psych sheet, going through the scoring team and what exactly we’re looking for. Things are looking good on both sides.”

Expectations are high for the men’s team.

Since the 2006-07 season, the group has not finished outside of the top five. Despite the high ranking finishes, last year was the only time in that span that they had taken first.

While he’s confident that his team can repeat, Bowser does acknowledge that some things could prevent that. For example, he pointed out that the possibility of a disqualification in just two events could sway the scoring in another teams favor.

On the women’s side, things are a little different.

Going back to the 2006-07 season, the women’s swimming and diving team has finished in the top five only three times. They’re best finish came in the 2010-11 season when they finished third out of 19 teams.

“It’s kind of tough when you’re going against some top DII schools that have studs that are paid to go to class. With 14 freshmen, you just don’t know what you’re going to get. By placing and seed wise, it looks great,” he said.

Bowser also spoke about what it would be like for the women to win.

“It’d be a huge accomplishment,” he said. “Just to be somewhere in the middle of the pack last year, to bringing in a group of freshman girls, bringing them together in one season to accomplish that, not that it’s unheard of, but it’s tough to do.”

While at METs, the brown and gold will be going up against a slew of opponents, the majority of them being from Division III colleges or universities. However, there will be five DII teams and a DI program competing.

But in a season that saw the men’s team finish 7-2, the women’s team win six of its final seven meets, why can’t the Profs take METs as well?

Both the men’s and women’s team won the New Jersey Athletic Conference this year. For the men, it was the first time since 1992-93, while the women won for the first time since 1998-99.

Adding a Metropolitan Championship to the trophy case wouldn’t just be another check mark for the season.

“For me, I look at it as another win, but it’s also another way of us improving,” Bowser said. “One step forward toward us improving and building the legacy that I know these guys want the team to have.”

For comments/questions about this story, email sports@thewhitonline.com or tweet @TheWhitOnline.