By RYAN STIEG

Journal Sports Writer

MARQUETTE – A new era begins this fall at Northern Michigan University as the Wildcats will add a men’s swimming and diving team to its existing women’s program.

What makes that even more interesting is that the inaugural team will primarily be made up of athletes hailing from Mexico to Latvia to Turkey.

NMU head coach Heidi Voigt is looking forward to the season.

“When we announced that we were starting a men’s team, it sparked a lot of interest overseas,” she said. “A lot of times, recruiters send mass emails to every college coach in the country. When we start getting those emails, we just respond and my assistant coach does a great job keeping in touch with them and sending them links about the school and our program. We also Skype with them and it took off from there. It’s worked out really well.”

Voigt said the reason so many foreign swimmers are interested in coming to the U.S. is because it gives them the best chance to continue their careers.

“We’re the only place in the world with a college swimming system like this,” Voigt said.

“In swimming, when they’re done with high school, their careers are basically done unless they’re the best of the best.

“A lot of these athletes are looking to continue with the sport that they love and get an education at the same time. They can’t do that anywhere else, so the state is their only option.”

One of the more interesting recruiting tales involves incoming freshman Esteban Gutierrez from Chihuahua, Mexico, who Voigt got to talk to in an airport.

“The guy from Mexico was kind of a crazy story,” she said. “I know a coach in Mexico and I said that we added a men’s team and if they had anybody for me.

“The fun part was that I went to a wedding and my Mexican athlete happened to be going to the airport at the same time. We actually met in the airport in Mexico City.

“We sat down and talked about Northern for a while. It was meant to be,” Voigt said.

The Northern women’s swimming team also has athletes from overseas, just not as many as the men.

Senior Crystal Bennet hails from Sydney, Australia, and swam in a variety of events, including the 200 and 400-yard medley relays.

The Wildcats also have two foreign incoming freshmen in Carolina Artacho from Brazil and Emily Bell from England.

Voigt said she hasn’t determined what events her new group of swimmers will compete in, but she also won’t limit them to only one.

“I tell them that we’re not going to pigeonhole them and that they can’t try anything else,” she said. “Especially for the men because they’re still growing and getting stronger.

“They may find an event when they get here and it will turn out to be their best event. We just have to figure out the best place to put them at the right time.”

The challenge for Voigt is getting everybody to gel together, which can be difficult when starting a new program.

“I think it’s going to be challenging at first because you have to develop three team personalities,” she said. “You need a men’s team, a women’s team and a co-ed team.

“That’s going to be a lot of work, getting us to come together in the fall to find their identity in those three aspects.

“I think the men are going to be better than I’m expecting the first year out. We still have a couple guys getting their full clearance and if that comes through, I think they can be really good,” she added.

“With the women, it’s going to be a different year. We lost half of our team to graduation, so we have 12 new women and 11 returners.

“That dynamic is going to be very different,” Voigt added. “The goal is to get them to work together and if we can do that, we will do well.”

The first year may be a little difficult, but Voigt is looking forward to starting up. She likes the fact that there will be more home meets in the future.

“I think it’s going to be a really fun year,” she said. “I’m kind of bummed that we only have a couple home meets, but we do have two intrasquads.”

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 246. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.