After wrapping up the regular season, Rowan men’s swimming will now turn their attention towards the second annual New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Swimming & Diving Championships, taking place at the Hampton Aquaplex in Hampton, Virginia from Feb. 13-16.

At last year’s conference championship meet, Rowan finished third, directly behind TCNJ and Merchant Marine. Based on his observations this season, head coach Brad Bowser has solidified his thoughts on how his team stacks up with the rest of the conference.

“We’re gonna be up there, we just don’t have the depth to compete with schools that offer diving,” said Bowser. “Unfortunately the point scoring is always going to be that way because you need a unanimous decision from the presidents to change that. But for the most part, I see us around second or third.”

Aside from overcoming lost points from diving competitions, swimmers will also have to deal with the challenge of swimming in a new pool. Bowser detailed what the coaching staff will do to help the swimmers adjust.

“We always try to give the swimmers a day to get acclimated to the conditions,” said Bowser. “Every pool is different. Some pools are kept at 80 degrees, others at 81 or 78. The bulkheads is another thing where it could be a wall or a removable bulkhead so these things can be tough to adjust to. That’s why we’re big on counting strokes and keeping the count where it needs to be so they’re not second guessing where the wall is.”

Senior Gavin Luong is one of the veterans who have participated in the competition before, so he knows what preparing for the meet is going to look like for the team.

“Just sticking with everything and paying attention to the details,” said Luong. “We had our goal meetings earlier and had three goals laid out we wanted to accomplish from now to NJACs. So thinking about that every day keeps the focus on NJACs.”

For Luong and a few other swimmers, this will be their last time racing in the pool as a collegiate athlete. Luong discussed the emotions he has entering his final meet.

“When I came into this program, I wasn’t very fast,” said Luong. “I worked really hard, trying to make an impact and I finally got to do that my senior year. So it’s gonna be really sad but that’s life, you gotta move on.”

On Wednesday, Bowser will be bringing down swimmers who are participating in the 800 freestyle relay before the rest of the team travels on Thursday. A win at the NJAC Championships would secure Rowan’s first victory in a conference championship meet since winning the Metropolitan Conference Championships during the 2019-20 season.

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