Kansas’ swim team will have a big hole to fill this season after coach Cathy Burgess stepped down in June to take a teaching job in her hometown of Hickory, N.C.

Burgess, who spent three years as an assistant coach before taking over the top job prior to the 2000-01 season, led the Jayhawks to a 3-5 record her first year and improved to 7-4 last year.

It’s that winning record and the experience of the returning swimmers that gives team members hope for improvement, even without Burgess.

“It will be different and we’ll miss her a lot,” senior Heidi Landherr said. “She was a good friend to a lot of us. She was in our shoes seven or eight years ago when she was in college, so I think we’ll miss that. I’ve had enough coaches in my life, though, that I think we’ll do well with another coach. We’ll miss her, but I think it won’t hurt us too much.”

Fellow senior Stacey Schneider feels the same way.

“We’re going to miss her a lot,” Schneider said, “but every year is different anyway. Everyone goes from a different coach after high school. It’s going to be a different coaching style, but everyone can adapt, and they’re going to get someone who knows what they’re doing.”

Landherr and Schneider are two of seven seniors in a class that began under Gary Kempf, now an assistant athletic director, and went through the transition to Burgess as head coach.

“Our No. 1 strength is our senior class, no question,” assistant coach Eric Eikenbary said. “It’s a group of girls that have been through a lot in their four years at Kansas. They’ve been intact since their sophomore season and that really speaks volumes about them. It’s an incredibly hard-working, intelligent and motivated group of seniors.”

Three freshmen Gina Gnatzig, Amy Roller and Lindsey Urbatchka will join the team and try to answer the few questions remaining.

“When the new freshmen come in it will better help us understand our weaknesses,” Eikenbary said. “Last year, we had some problems in the 100 butterfly, but we’re bringing in a girl from Wyoming (Urbatchka) who will hopefully help us fill that weakness. Throughout the season we had some troubles from time to time with the backstroke. Amy Gruber’s a sophomore and is going to do the backstroke, but we kind of had to spread her thin, so we’ll see if Gina Gnatzig can maybe fill that weakness.”

With experience and talented newcomers, the Jayhawks are full of enthusiasm and looking to expand on the improvement shown last season.

“I think we look really good,” Landherr said. “I’m really excited. At conference last year, I was surprised with how well people did and I was really impressed with how we did as a team. I know everyone is excited about this year and I think it will be a pretty good one for us.”

Landherr, a captain along with Schneider and senior diver Kristie Misejka, hopes to make a bigger splash in her final season.

“Last year was my best year so far,” she said, “and I figured out how to train the best and what works for me. I dropped a lot of times so I’m planning on continuing that next year.”

Schneider seconds that notion.

“In my three years here, I think this is the best we’ve ever looked,” she said. “We’ve had more people come to practice this summer than we’ve ever had, and I’ve gotten hold of everyone who’s not in Lawrence and they’re very enthused about it. I’m very excited.”

Schneider, who walked on as a freshman, was surprised to be named a co-captain.

“It’s kind of different,” she said. “There aren’t many of those, but it’s exciting. It shows that swimming ability is important, but out-of-the-water attributes are just as important.”

Out of the water, the swimmers topped all KU sports with a 3.34 grade-point average in the spring of 2002, a mark that beat the team record of 3.24 set in the fall of 2001.

In the pool, Kansas finished fifth out of six Big 12 schools in the conference championships. Eikenbary thinks the experience gained after the season at the USA nationals, where Kansas finished 29th out of 87 teams, will help the team move up.

“Another strength will be that we took seven women to USA swimming nationals in the spring,” Eikenbary said, “and as a result those seven girls have some real elite level experience and are hopefully motivated to get to the next level, which would be the NCAA championships.”

Eikenbary sees few weaknesses.

“We’ve got a good sprint group,” he said, “we’ve got a good distance group, we’ve got a good mid-distance group and it’s going to be a situation where it all has to come together.”