In collegiate swimming, athletes and coaches spend the entire season working toward gradual yet consistent improvement. The ultimate goal is to peak at the end of the season.

For the swimmers and divers at the University of Maine, that final opportunity to turn in their best performances has arrived with the start of the America East Championship.

Coach Jeff Wren’s Black Bears are serving as hosts for the event, which begins today and runs through Sunday night at Wallace Pool in Orono.

The Northeastern women and the men’s team from Delaware are the defending champions, but this is the meet where anything can happen. Wren is hoping for improvement in the team standings, but said that isn’t the emphasis for the Bears.

“Our goal is to be the most conspicuously improving team here,” said Wren, who is in his 25th season as the UMaine women’s coach and his 11th heading both the men and women.

“We know we’ve done our job if the kids swim their best times of the year,” he added.

UMaine goes into the meet with high hopes despite being laden with underclassmen.

On the women’s side, the Bears hope to improve on last year’s seventh-place finish. UMaine junior Krystal Fogler of New Rochelle, N.Y., was named the Outstanding Swimmer last year and hopes to perform well again.

Fogler is expected to swim the 100 backstroke, the 200 backstroke and the 50 freestyle in addition to some relays.

“She is, at this point, not seeded at the top in her events,” Wren said. “But she’s had a much stronger training performance from Christmas forward. I think she’s pretty pumped up.”

Freshman Katrina Alcaide of Brunswick is the top seed in the 1,500 freestyle, while the Bears’ 200 medley relay squad of freshman Stephanie Smeitana (backstroke), junior Griffin O’Connor (breaststroke), Fogler (fly) and Alcaide also is seeded first.

The quartet recently smashed the UMaine record in that event with a time of 1 minute, 49.01 seconds.

“One of the things I’m real excited about for the women is the relay swims,” Wren said. “The 200 medley is one of the best relays we’ve ever had.”

UMaine is seeded second in the 200 and 400 free relays. Frosh Kate Abbott of Readfield is another up-and-comer. She’ll likely swim the individual medley along with a breaststroke and a freestyle event.

The Black Bear men are paced by sophomore freestyler Jamie Cunningham of Bar Harbor. He’s the top seed in the 100 free and is second in the 200 and third in the 50.

UMaine’s other veterans include senior Dana Barrows of Westbrook, junior Jon Dewitt of Waterboro and junior Kevin Fox of South Portland.

“The men have some really strong individuals, but less balance,” Wren said.

The Bears have been battling illness over the last few weeks, but Wren hopes his athletes can rebound.

“Hopefully it won’t be a factor,” Wren said. “The excitement level that gets generated here is pretty intense, so you can overcome a lot.”