The Rowan men’s swimming team fell to Salisbury by a final score of 141-121 on Saturday, Nov. 2, at Tony Lisa Natatorium in Glassboro. The loss dropped Rowan’s record to 1-2 on the season.

Despite the loss, there were plenty of standout performances delivered by the Profs. Jack Watson, an All-American back for his fifth and final season of college athletics, won two events during the meet. Watson won both the 100 and 200 backstroke, recording times of 49.76 and 1:56.36 respectively. Watson talked about what he thought he and his teammates did well on Saturday.

“Despite the loss, I think it was a good performance from everybody,” Watson said. “Energy was really high on deck, which is always a positive thing to see especially this early in the season. I don’t think we’re really too stressed about the loss.”

Tobias Cahnbley also turned in a good performance on Saturday, notching top times in the 200 (1:44.6) and 500 freestyle (4:44.80). His performance was good enough to receive New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Men’s Swimmer of the Week. 

Head coach Brad Bowser also had some positive takeaways from his squad’s performance during the meet.

“I liked the cohesiveness of the team, we see a lot of the work we do start to come together,” Bowser said. “Leadership skills are coming out and we’re starting to see a program that’s going in the right direction. Even though we lost the meet, how we performed was strong.”

Another standout performance came from freshman Julian Huynh, the recipient of NJAC Rookie Swimmer of the Week last week. Huynh produced a time of 9:51.69 to win the 1000 freestyle. 

“To get a rookie at his level and his quality, it’s really good to see because it’s what a program grows off of,” Bowser said. “I’m a big believer in that if you see something, it rubs off on you. So having some of these freshmen see what his abilities are can carry onto the other practices and meets.”

Rowan’s next meet comes against Montclair State on Friday, Nov. 15, in Glassboro. Being his last year of college swimming, Watson is making sure to soak all the moments in.

“I wasn’t really prepared to come back and swim this year, I thought last year was going to be my final year,” Watson said. “Once I got the green light from the NCAA to come back, I definitely learned to appreciate the sport a lot more. Definitely taking it all in and appreciating what I have.”

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