Memories, Rings to Highlight Special Swim/Dive 1980s Celebration

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The dictionary defines the word dynasty as 'a powerful group or family that maintains its position for a considerable time.'

The Miami University women's swimming and diving teams of the 1980s certainly qualify.

The Red and White won the Mid-American Conference championship for the first time in 1982.

Then they did it again in 1983.

And 1984.

1985.

1986.

1987.

1988.

In all, Miami claimed seven straight league crowns, a record that hasn't been surpassed to this day.

"We had some great talent, but we had great depth," said Dave Jennings, who was the head coach for the last six of those championships and won a total of 16 during his 31-year Hall-of-Fame career in Oxford.

"If you could put three people in the championship final in at least nine out of the 13 [individual] events, you had a pretty good shot of possibly winning a championship…

"Mike Scott [who coached the 1982 team to the title] really got the ball rolling…I was just lucky to be able to sustain it. Every year, we had to reinvent ourselves."

"I think one thing was recruiting individuals that had potential but put the team before themselves," said Jennifer (Shea) Vallo '87, a member of four championship teams and a 2006 inductee into the Miami Athletics Hall of Fame. "We had some really good swimmers from all over…winning an individual title was fun, winning on a relay was so much better (because you're up there with three teammates), but winning as a team was our focus.

"The group was greater than one."

Miami Swimming and Diving will recognize the accomplishments of that record-setting era on Dec. 7, when dozens of former student-athletes from four decades ago return to campus to receive championship rings on the final night of the annual Miami Invitational. Current RedHawks who compete in the same events as their predecessors will hand out the rings, which were paid for by a group of donors to honor those historic title-winning teams.

"I think it will be really special for our current team to get an idea of how long the tradition is here at Miami with swimming and diving," said first-year head coach Samantha Pitter. "For our women, it's been a while since we won a MAC championship, so seeing that it's been done here before and having somebody that goes through the same pain they went through in their training and their event and their preparation: I think it will be really special.

"What really stands out to me about those women is how close they still are to this day…that leads to winning, when you have a great team culture and great camaraderie," Pitter continued. "That's what I want to bring to light when they're here celebrating those wins."

Talk to any former Miami swimmer who's counting down the days to this weekend's reunion, and the exact same theme comes to the surface: The lasting special bonds of friendship between teammates that endure for generations.

"A lot of us have really kept in touch; that's one of the great things about the program," said Bonnie (Causey) Johnson '90. "We're all in each other's weddings. We've been godmothers to people's children.

"What I'm most proud of is the camaraderie that we developed as a team has carried over all these years later. The relationships that were formed during that time when you train and compete? It's life-altering and long-lasting."

Kristyn (Ryndress) Tuttle '82 said many of the memories that stand out most from her time with the program came on the annual van trips down south. "I always enjoyed the trips to Florida, even though they were extremely hard. Practices weren't easy, but it was always a nice break in the middle of winter," Tuttle recalled. (Of course, she also remembers the early days of her career when the student-athletes got cars from the motor pool and had to drive themselves to the meets!)

While the training-trip weather in Florida may have been nice, getting there in December wasn't always as simple as it sounded. "It was really snowing one year and we were trying to decide whether we should put it off for a few days, but we decided to go ahead and drive down," Jennings said. "As we were driving south on I-75, we got down to the Jellico Mountains in Tennessee, and all of a sudden, the traffic stopped. The roads were icy, there was a lot of snow, and we did not move for 14 hours.

"We had a decent amount of fuel, so we turned on the vans about 15 minutes every hour. There happened to be a Krispy Kreme donut truck four or five cars ahead of us, and the guy was handing out donuts!

"We finally got moving and got into Knoxville to have a reasonable meal, but we still had another 12 hours to get down to Florida. The first few days there, we were ALL really tired!"

Those kinds of stories will fly fast and furious as the reunion gets underway later this week, with alums set to enjoy each other's company at a get-together uptown Friday night, a Saturday afternoon social at the Gross Center, and, of course, the ring presentation at the Corwin M. Nixon Aquatic Center at 4 p.m. Saturday.

"It's been a long time, but the fun thing about this reunion is those girls will pick up where they left off like they never left," Jennings smiled.

Vallo, who is part of the host committee putting on the event, agreed with her former coach. After spending months sending emails, making phone calls, and even writing snail-mail letters to try and find as many former members of the program as she could, she can hardly believe the long-awaited reunion is finally here.

"I'm super-excited. It seemed so far away…sometimes things are almost so big and so surreal that you're like, 'I don't quite believe that happened,'" said Vallo, calling the project a 'labor of love.'

"I think this weekend will be similar…seeing everyone together. There are some people I haven't seen since graduation, and others I haven't seen since the early 2000s when we received our varsity letters.

"Seeing all the people —that have meant something and been a part of my life— together will be amazing…it's about much more than the rings.

"The rings are a symbol, but it's really about getting all of us back together on campus."

Find more Front Row Features at: MiamiRedHawks.com/FrontRowFeatures

Miami Swimming and Diving hosts the co-ed Miami Invitational on Dec. 5-7 at the Corwin M. Nixon Aquatic Center in Oxford. Prelims begin at 9:30 a.m. with finals starting at 5 p.m. Thursday/Friday and 4:30 p.m. Saturday; admission is free and open to the public. Members of the title-winning teams of the 1980s will receive their championship rings in a special ceremony before Saturday's finals (Dec. 7 at 4 p.m.).

Memories, Rings to Highlight Special Swim/Dive 1980s Celebration

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