This past weekend the DePauw swimming and diving team traveled to Granville, Ohio to partake in the NCAC swimming and diving championships.
In the men’s competition No. 21 DePauw finished third overall (1141.5 points) behind No. 1 Denison University (1953 pts.) and No. 3 Kenyon College (1750 pts.), who finished first and second respectively.
On their way to a third place finish in arguably the toughest conference meet in the country, several DePauw swimmers performed at an all time high. Adam Cohen, the head coach of the men’s team, was impressed with the way his team stepped up on the biggest stage.
“Overall I was really pleased,” Cohen said. “I think everybody except for a few guys had at least one lifetime best. Most had two and some even had three. When you have everybody hitting lifetime bests, there’s not much more you can ask for. We’re in a unique conference, with Kenyon and Denison.”
Even with everyone performing so well, two major highlights stuck out for the men’s team. The first was senior Brandon Sholtis who picked up the individual title for the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.65 seconds. Sholtis’s individual title is the third in program history, and the first since 2014. Despite the incredible honor, Sholtis is still only looking forward to competing in Nationals.
“It was pretty awesome going out winning the 50 senior year,” Sholtis said. “I haven’t really thought about it too much since we’re still waiting to find out who is going through to nationals. There are a couple of relay teams that could advance, and then I have my individual 50 which could slide through as well. That’s really all I can think about right now.”
Coach Cohen was in awe of Sholtis and his effort. “That’s just an amazing thing what he did,” Cohen said. “Swimming against the two best teams in the country.”
The second major highlight for the men’s team was junior Sam McManus who broke the school record for the 100-yard breaststroke during the opening 100 of his 200-yard race.
“Sam swam the first 100 yards all out and actually made a national cut,” Cohen said. “But then he had to turn around and finish the second half of that race. It was unique. You don’t see that done very often.”
On the women’s side, the No. 23 DePauw women’s team finished third overall (1108 pts.) while Denison (1988 pts.) and Kenyon (1769 pts.) took home first and second to parallel the men’s standings. Women’s coach Shea Davisson was satisfied with the overall results.
“I think overall it was a really great weekend,” Davisson said. “I was glad we solidified our third place spot. We are kind of on an island, with Kenyon and Denison always at the top and then us at third, and the rest of the pack battling it out behind us. The 800-yard freestyle relay got a solid time and we will see if that advances to nationals. But we had a lot of people swim lifetime bests, some younger, some older so all in all it was a successful meet.”
One of the major highlights for the women’s team was senior Angela Newlon’s individual title in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:26.27. This was Newlon’s first title in the event after two second place finishes and one third place finish during her time at DePauw.
Davisson is also highly anticipating Newlon’s performance in the National Championship meet. “Looking forward it will be fun to see Angela compete at nationals,” Davisson said. “She was not fully rested for this meet, so with a full rest and proper taper she will swim really well and shine and hopefully go out with a bang.”
As a whole, the women’s team showed improvement from day one to day three. Sophomore Mary Woods was excited about how the team was able to swim better each day. “By the end we definitely came together better,” Woods said. “We were swimming better on day three than on day one. I’m happy with how we rallied and supported each other while we were there. Being in conference with Kenyon and Denison is a good competitive comparison and motivator for what it takes to contend on a national level.”
For the time being, the work continues for both teams as the national field is announced this weekend.
