RIO GRANDE VALLEY – Laying the foundation. It's the phrase that comes to mind when you reflect on the 2024-25 season for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) swimming & diving program.
 
The Vaqueros experienced lots of milestones throughout their first season, including, sending their first diver to the NCAA Zone "D" Diving Championships, hosting their first meet, and competing in their first conference championships.
 
"We had a lot of firsts," UTRGV Swimming & Diving Head Coach Betsy Graham said. ""The first memorable thing was Manou qualifying for the NCAA Zone "D" Diving Championships right off the bat. To do it in the first meet that we had at home, it was great."
 
That first meet took place on Oct. 12, 2024, when the Vaqueros hosted the University of The Incarnate Word Cardinals in their first NCAA DI meet in front of 631 fans.
 
That is when freshman diver Manou Meulebeek qualified for the NCAA Zone "D" Diving Championships in the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard with scores of 299.33 and 286.43, respectively. Meanwhile, in the pool, freshman Annaleagh Stahl set the tone for her season after winning three individual events.
 
The fall went by fast and concluded when the swimmers traveled to Boise, Idaho for the Vandal Invite and the divers went to San Antonio to compete in the Tiger Invitational.
 
Across both invites, the Vaqueros racked up 25 personal best times and marks to post their most successful meet to date.
 
The spring started slow for the Vaqueros, but the team flashed their potential at the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Championships where they turned heads with their performances in the pool.
 
"When I look back at it, I think the whole conference meet was a success," Graham said. "Out of 51 swims, we had 45 personal best times, so everybody dropped times across the board, and to just watch their faces as they realized it, that was awesome."
 
At the WAC Championships, Stahl earned fifth in the 200 backstroke and seventh in the 400 individual medley. Those results represented UTRGV's first top-five and top-eight individual finish at a conference championship.
 
In addition, sophomore Olivia Votava competed in three finals as she finished in 18^th in the 1650 freestyle and qualified for the "C" final in both the 500 freestyle and 400 individual medley at the WAC Championships.
 
On the boards, Meulebeek reached the consolation finals in both the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard where she finished ninth and 14^th, respectively.
 
Beyond their performance in the pool, the Vaqueros' positivity and energy was evident throughout the year. This is, in part, due to Graham's goal of creating a team-driven atmosphere and creating team-led traditions.
 
"It started off with me having them create their own cheer," Graham said. "Now, we have the hat for the preseason pentathlon winner. Then, we created Vicky Vaquero, who was passed around to who the previous winner felt did the most in that meet. It could be team spirit or performance based, but the student-athletes decide who gets that and explains why."
 
The upstart program has made waves on campus with their infectious personalities and have extended their reach outside of the pools as the student-athletes can be seen engaging with the community and attending a variety of university events.
 
"We show up, and we support all the other teams.," Graham said. "We also felt that it was important for us to do at least one community service activity a month. These are things that we're going to build on and make sure that everybody understands why it's important for us to do it as a team."
 
On top of their competitive success and community engagement, the Vaqueros also saw immense success in the classroom, finishing with a team GPA of 3.43 in Fall 2024 and having junior Delaney Murphy, sophomore AJ Rogers, and Votava selected to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team.
 
After laying a great foundation in year one, Graham is confident in the team's ability to grow and begin competing in the NCAA Championships and the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) National Invitational Championships (NIC).
 
"I'm really excited for Manou," Graham said. "Now that she has gotten a year under her belt and knows what it takes, I absolutely think she can make it to the NCAA Championships next year."
 
"For the swimmers, I think that we can get really close to some of the qualifying times for the CSCAA NIC," Graham continued. "That's our next step. Let's get someone to the NCAA Championships and someone to the CSCAA NIC. That's our goal for next year."