Collegiate Times

One significant difference the team will see is an increase in practice space. The new aquatic center can accommodate 22 lanes even with diving practice going on in the diving well, Piemonte said.

“It’s going to make such a difference in the way we train our student athletes. It’s going to open the door for more individualized coaching,” Skinner said. “The other thing that will be a huge advantage for us is the recruiting part of it.”

Piemonte said the diving team would also see the benefits of the new facility, calling it “incomparable” to War Memorial Hall. He said he plans to have the diving team practicing there at least five days per week.

“Everything is state-of-the-art,” Piemonte said. “Having the equipment is great, and I finally have a platform.”

Like Skinner, Piemonte said having the new facility would improve swimming and diving at Tech.

 “It’s going to be a huge, huge benefit to the program. It’s hard to get a diver to come and dive in a facility that’s one of the worst in the conference,” he said.

And while the pool will benefit Tech in many ways, it will also be a benefit to Christiansburg and the surrounding area.

“I know that it will definitely be a revenue boost for the town of Christiansburg,” Caldwell said. “When you host these kinds of meets you have all these swimmers and their families coming to Christiansburg, staying in our hotels and eating at our restaurants.”

The aquatic center recently hosted the age group and senior championship swim meets, and plans to host more in coming years.

According to Skinner, the aquatic center will host the 2012 ACC swim meet.

“I’m going to get into the rotation of hosting the NCAA zone diving competitions,” said Piemonte. “It’s a separate meet that’s just diving, and it’s how divers qualify to go to the
NCAAs.”

“The town of Christiansburg and Terry Caldwell have been magnificent and great to work with. It’s going to be a really great relationship,”
Skinner said.

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A version of this article appeared in the Aug 9 issue of the Collegiate Times.