On most mornings, Emily Facchine wakes up at 5:30 a.m., gets ready and heads to the Aquatic Center for swimming practice. Facchine, who started swimming at the age of 5, has been going to swim practices for most of her life.

So when Facchine and the rest of the University of Alabama swimming and diving team head out at 8 a.m. Friday morning to face off against Georgia in their first conference meet of the season, getting up for the trip will be a kind of relief.

“Eight o’clock is nothing for us,” Facchine said with a laugh. “We’re getting to sleep in.” 

Coach Dennis Pursley said the Crimson Tide is busy preparing for the end of the season conference meet and wouldn’t be slowing down their training for dual meets. 

“We’re overloading the workload, so they’re a little bit beat up, but it’ll be a good opportunity to see what they’re made of,” he said. 

Facchine said the meet against Georgia is important, because the team won’t be at the same level of performance as they will at the end of the season. Facchine will be competing in the 200 butterfly and 400 individual freestyle. 

“The day you get here you’re looking toward SECs,” Facchine said. “You can’t be at your best all the time. We’re all going to be sacrificing a little bit because how hard we’re training.”

Phillip Deaton, captain of the men’s team, will be competing in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes and 400 freestyle. Deaton said his focus is on the team’s success rather than his own. He said the biggest factors are how the team prepares and supports each other.

“I want to see the team get top three at conference and top 10 at NCAA,” he said. “You can’t perform as well without your teammates’ help, and they can’t perform as well without yours.”

Facchine said during the race she clears her mind and tries not to think too much about what’s going on. Motivation is needed during practice, but at the race, she needs a clear head with only one goal: to finish. Deaton said his motivation for the season is not letting his teammates down. 

“My motivation is that my teammates are depending on me to do my best, so we can get the win at the meet,” Deaton said. “If I don’t show up, I’m going to let my teammates down, and that’s not something I want to do.”

Pursley said the team is trying to top the amount of improvement that they made last season, although it will be difficult. Facchine said hearing “Yea, Alabama” at last year’s NCAAs was her favorite moment on the team, and she said she hopes for a similar moment this season.

“During my first two years, we never had a person get on the podium and hear our fight song,” Facchine said. “So for the first time, we got to experience that, and it was so amazing.”