{"id":1762,"date":"2015-02-19T09:02:19","date_gmt":"2015-02-19T14:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=1762"},"modified":"2015-02-19T09:02:19","modified_gmt":"2015-02-19T14:02:19","slug":"swimming-and-diving-excel-at-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2015\/02\/19\/swimming-and-diving-excel-at-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Swimming and Diving Excel at Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John Wyatt- Sports Section Editor<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Centre College\u2019s Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s Swimming and Diving teams recently returned from the Southern Atlantic Athletic (SAA) Conference Championships, concluding one of the longest athletic seasons at Centre. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Men\u2019s team finished in second place and the Women\u2019s team came in third. Men finished up the meet with 780 points, coming in just behind first place winner, the Birmingham-Southern University Panthers. Women recorded 652.5 points, falling behind the Rhodes College Lynxes and Birmingham-Southern.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"While<\/a>
While the teams did not receive the placements they wanted, members of both Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s teams received several individual honors and broke several school and conference records<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Going into the season, the Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s Swimming and Diving teams\u2019 goals varied slightly. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter getting third last year when we were hoping to win, the [Women\u2019s] team took a new approach this year with more of a focus on personal best times and enjoying ourselves in the water as a team together,\u201d senior Hadley Judson said. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were determined to remain positive and support each other the whole weekend no matter what happened. The [Men\u2019s] team was hoping to get a third [consecutive] championship but was very aware of how steep the competition was.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Junior Kirsten Larson shared similar thoughts when assessing the competition. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSince other teams were larger than us, we didn\u2019t necessarily have a championship title in mind. Our thought process was going in without expectations and showing the competitors that we weren\u2019t going to leave without putting up a fight,\u201d Larson said. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nothing but eagerness, excitement and anticipation going in.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

However, both teams unfortunately encountered some setbacks going in to the final meet. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMany of us were hit with \u2018the plague\u2019 [illness] at the beginning of the weekend, but this didn\u2019t damper the mood. Instead, we used it as a motivating force. Although setbacks can creep up when least expected, we also had to remember that we didn\u2019t work all season to throw the towel in at the end,\u201d Larson said. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Their resilience showed. Several of the swimmers\u2019 individual performances received awards and set new school or conference records. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

First-year Noah Martin set the conference and school records for both the 100 and 200 butterfly events and made a NCAA B cut. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

First-year Logan Oatman won the 100 and 200 backstroke events and the 500 free event, which set school records in all three events and a conference record in the 200 backstroke event. Oatman also received \u201cNewcomer of the Year\u201d for his performance. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Oatman\u2019s record in the 200 backstroke event ranked him 10th among all NCAA Division III swimmers for that event. His performance indicates his good shot when going on to the NCAA National Championships. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For the Women\u2019s team, junior Kristen Holliday received two NCAA B cuts, set a school record in the 400 individual medley event, and set a conference record in the 200 butterfly event as well. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

First-year Sarah Hayhurst also won \u201cFemale Diver of the Year\u201d at the championships. Senior Danielle Wahl received \u201cFemale Swimmer of the Meet.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Despite disheartening close defeats, all of the swimmers take solace in the collective individual performances. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think we swam very well at the conference,\u201d senior Louis Rodgers said. \u201cThe number of new records, NCAA B cuts, and individual champions speak for itself. Although we were not able to beat Birmingham-Southern, we had one of the best meets in the history of this team.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The celebration of the numerous individual accomplishments was a bonding experience for several members. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a [first-year], I have learned that the team is greater than anything that any one individual can accomplish,\u201d Oatman said. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would be nothing without the support group of my team. They are everything to me and they share as much as I do. It is a tradition of love that I want to foster in the coming three years.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the ending of a season means the departure of seniors who spent their college years putting their blood, sweat, and tears into a program. The team will lose 14 seniors in the graduating Class of 2015 who swam with the program since the beginning. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe last four years on the team have been awesome. I have had the opportunity to meet and spend time with some incredible people. I am just really thankful and blessed to have had the experience I have had with the team,\u201d senior Spencer Vetter said. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Other seniors share the nostalgia of their final season coming to an end. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been an honor to swim amongst such amazing people for the past four years. While I am sad that my swimming career is over, I will cherish the memories that I have shared with my teammates for the rest of my life,\u201d Rodgers said. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While the prospect of replacing such a large group of experienced and talented veterans is never an easy thing, returning swimmers will continue to build upon the program\u2019s legacy.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be graduating a large class of seniors this year whose leadership and influence is irreplaceable, but I trust the incoming class will continue to bring amazing things to this team and family,\u201d Larson said. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough I am happy with my swims at conference, I am far from satisfied. There is still much work to do in the coming three years and I look forward to every second of it,\u201d Oatman said. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Swimming and Diving remains one of Centre\u2019s strongest athletic programs, and it won\u2019t be long until they are back on top. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Wyatt- Sports Section Editor Centre College\u2019s Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s Swimming and Diving teams recently returned from the Southern Atlantic Athletic (SAA) Conference Championships, concluding one of the longest athletic seasons at Centre. The Men\u2019s team finished in second place and the Women\u2019s team came in third. Men finished up the meet with 780 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}