The Rowan men’s swimming team lost on Saturday to the West Chester University Rams, 151-53, at the Graham Natatorium in West Chester, Pennsylvania. 

Rowan faced an uphill battle against the Division II Rams, as they put up a valiant effort, which isn’t visible through the final score alone. Head coach Brad Bowser felt the race was good preparation for next week’s Franklin & Marshall Invitational.

“Well, we swam off-event,” Bowser said. “There’s really no focus other than getting in some racing. It was more individualized, more built towards trying to get them prepared for next week at the midseason meet.”

Against a competitive team in a higher division, Bowser felt the team’s progress in both their training and meets shouldn’t be reflected based on the final score of this meet.

“We just had three meets in a row where we were focused on primaries. For us to go and swim against a Division II school and compete against guys that are about the same level or better than us,” Bowser said. “There might be two different training styles, so ours might be heavier than theirs. If you look at the score, it doesn’t look that way, and nobody really understands that, but in the sport of swimming, the only ones that really understand that are the coaches and the swimmers.”

The Profs did find some success in a few events. The 400 Relay Team, consisting of Braden Sheehan, Drew Westhoven, Mason Parkzes, and Joshua Oliveira, earned first place with a time of 3:13.85. 

Oliveira also felt West Chester was more of a tune-up for the Franklin & Marshall Invitational to see where the team’s best events were. 

“We were testing that out for mid-seasons. We were trying to find the strongest relays for mid-seasons [Franklin & Marshall Invitational],” Oliveira said. The three guys that I was with did really well and put in some really good times. We went in unsuited and also unshaved. We didn’t go in rested either.”

Earning second-place finishes for the team were Westhoven, Oliveira, Owen Masters, and James Bygott in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:38.13, Sheehan individually in the 100 butterfly with a 51.86, and Oliveira claiming third in the 100 free with a time of 48.81.

Up next for the Profs is their mid-season trip to the Franklin & Marshall Invitational in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It is a three-day event that will last from Friday, Nov. 21, to Sunday, Nov. 23.

Oliveira feels that this event will be a good way to display the work that’s been put in during practice throughout the first half of the season.

“Last year, it [Franklin & Marshall Invitational] was a big turning point for a lot of people. It’s our first suited meet of the season,” Oliveira said. “We really go deep into stroke routes and technique a lot, cause that’s the first half of the season now we’ll really put it into practice.”