The No. 19 men's swim team overtook Trinity University on the last day of the meet to win the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference for their seventh year in a row.
But trailing by five points at the end of the second day, the Tigers had to fend off more than just their competition in the Shenandoah, Texas pool.
"The flu hit our team hard with Johnny and myself swimming the majority of the meet with the stomach flu," said senior Josh Baugh, who came away with a NCAA-B victory in the 400-yard freestyle relay. He and his teammate, junior Johnny Montgomery, were hurting from their illnesses as they tried to focus on their races.
"There came a point on Friday night before the 800-free relay when I was feeling really ill and Johnny was in even worse health," Baugh said.
Baugh decided to swim, but head coach Adam Cohen was concerned about Montgomery swimming. Montgomery had been hit especially hard — he was throwing up violently. He later was so dehydrated he was sent to the hospital to receive intravenous treatment.
With the conclusion of the conference meet potentially hanging in the balance, Montgomery made it back to the pool, swimming with his relay teammates — Baugh and freshmen Matt Haeske and George Morrison. Together they captured first place and made an NCAA-B cut.
The Tiger men consider this the meet's turning point — a moment when they realized they were there to win and were not letting anything get in the way of them and their last chance to be champions of the SCAC.
"Being our last year and the tremendous winning tradition we have in the SCAC, we wanted nothing more than to leave on a historic seventh victory," Baugh said. "It is one that could be looked back upon as the culmination of our dominant stand."
The men finished with 921 points while Trinity and Colorado College rounded out the top three with 843 and 542 points respectively.
So what's next for the Tigers?
They currently have nine swimmers who have qualified with an NCAA-B time, meaning they will have to wait until next week to see if they have qualified for nationals.
"We begin practicing intensely on Tuesday afternoon in order to rebuild our endurance and re-taper before the meet if we make it," said freshman Jack Burgeson, a member of the 400-yard freestyle relay team. "The atmosphere of the practices will be different without the entire team by our sides, but nevertheless, their support will help us get through the training."
The rest of the team that will not advance to national competition is done for the year but the team knows they still have their support.
"They may not be with us physically, but they are still with us emotionally, mentally, and spiritually," Morrison said. "They never leave us as they always push us to do better than we think we are capable of."
On the other side, the women finished second for the second year in a row and the Trinity women took home their eighth straight conference championship.
Although the outcome is not all they would have hoped for, the women are still proud of their performances this weekend.
"Everyone did a great job of rising to the occasion and giving their races everything they had and cheering for all of our teammates," said junior Rachel Wheaton, who notched a NCAA-B time in the 400-yard freestyle relay. "We had a lot of season and personal best swims and we were excited to have divers scoring this year."
Like the men, the women had swimmers qualify with NCAA-B times.
Junior Catie Baker qualified for a B cut in the 200-yard breaststroke, and senior Katie Massey qualified in the 100-yard freestyle. The 400-yard freestyle relay of Wheaton, Baker, Massey and freshman Nicole Rossillo also qualified for nationals.
"We have to wait and see what place we are in once all the conferences finish," Massey said. "If we are in the top 16 then we will get to go to nationals. We just have to wait and see."
