The men’s swimming and diving season has officially come to an end.
They’ve swam their last swim, kicked their last kick and flipped their last turn.
After the NCAA Division III Championships (NCAA’s) the Brown and Gold are 22nd in all of Division III and four members came home with All-American honors. All-American honors are given to the top-16 finishers in an event final. One-through-eight are All-American and nine-through-sixteen are All-American honorable mentions.
But complacency is a tool to the adequate and a cancer of champions.
While the results may look great to us common folk, head coach Brad Bowser thinks his team could have done even better.
“I think it was the three and a half weeks [off] and within that three and a half weeks we got two guys with the flu, two guys with sinus infections and two more that were just bummed out because those [other] guys were sick,” Bowser said.
He thinks the men could have finished in the top-15 in a perfect world where every swim was perfect, but calls the weekend an overall win for the Profs.
Despite any obstacles, Kevin Gillooly had himself a week. The sophomore placed seventh in the 50 freestyle and was part of the 200 medley relay with Dan Lawton, Matt Grubb and Jake Kayati which finished 14th on Wednesday. Then, he turned around and was part of the 400 medley relay made up of the same squad which finished 14th with a time of 3:19.17 on Thursday. On Saturday, he finished sixth in the 100 freestyle for his second individual All-American honor.
Bowser said that he would have loved for the 200 freestyle relay of Gillooly, Kayati, Dylan Regan, and Nate Wojtowicz to place but chalks it up to nerves, young guys’ first time under the bright lights and the illnesses he mentioned.
I talked before the meet about how the season has been like a relay and NCAA’s was the anchor needed to have a solid performance to lock down the win. While the team could have done better, it was still a solid result and the season was won. They won the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) for the third year in a row, sent six men to NCAA’s, four came home with All-American Honors and they finished 22nd in the nation.
What’s great about this team, though, is their heart. They’ll use this year — not being as dominate as it could have been — to come back and be even better with most of the team still intact.
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