Excellence has been the recent standard for Emory University’s men’s and women’s swim and dive teams. Last March, the men’s team defeated 43 teams to secure their third consecutive NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championship and the women’s team placed sixth overall. Both teams also captured their 25th consecutive University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship. This year, both teams will be looking to add to their success.
Head coach Jon Howell, who is coming off two College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Men’s Coach of the Year awards in the past three years, noted that while the team has had a lot of previous success, this year they are highly focused on the future and making sure each swimmer and diver reaches their potential.
“Our goal is not really to maintain success, but rather to reinvent every year and really take the group that we have and make the most of them,” Howell said. “We try not to look at the past as much as looking forward to what we can do in the future.”
Howell also said their large senior class as well as their two fifth-year swimmers have helped significantly in leading the freshman class in their first year of collegiate swimming.
“The freshman class has done really well so far, in part because of their leadership and their mentorship,” Howell said. “Our best members year in and year out are our seniors and this group is a large and impressive group.”
Graduate swimmer Megan Jungers was a part of the fifth-place 200-yard freestyle relay team last season at nationals and finished fourth place in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 54.80. Jungers said she feels the freshmen on the team will have a very positive impact on the team dynamic and overall results this season.
“They’re an exciting group,” Jungers said. “They have already brought so much to the table, and they’re doing a great job coming off the bat excited for what they can accomplish here, and it’s just encouraging everyone else to push their potential.”
Senior swimmer Crow Thorsen, a CSCAA All-America First Team in the 400-yard individual medley (IM), 800-yard freestyle relay, 400-yard freestyle relay, 500-yard freestyle and 200-yard butterfly, also said the freshman class has added to the team spirit so far this season.
“We already are a high-energy bunch, but the freshmen brought in a lot more energy and just a lot more excitement,” Thorsen said. “That’s really made me realize why I love this team so much. They remind me of me when I was a freshman, just super eager and excited to race and also just immerse myself in the team.”
The Emory swim and dive team competes on Oct. 11.
As the current 400-yard IM champion in Division III, Thorsen said he is not only looking to defend his 400-yard IM title but is also extremely motivated to win the 800-yard freestyle relay, where the Eagles finished second to Williams College (Mass.) by 0.58 seconds at nationals last season.
Jungers said that one of the keys to the team’s continual success is their eager mindset, and she noted that the team stays ready to compete regardless of the circumstances.
“The nature of our team is that we always attack every opportunity, every lane is a chance to race,” Jungers said. “The situation doesn’t matter. … Every race is a chance to go fast and practice doing that, and I think that’s led to a lot of our success over the past years.”
After the men’s team’s only diver Alex York graduated last spring, they added one diver this season in freshman Solly Berkenwald. Berkenwald opened up his season in a meet against the Georgia Institute of Technology on Sept. 28 with a win in the 3-meter dive. He said the meet was a great experience to kick off his college career.
“The meet against Georgia Tech was surreal,” Berkenwald said. “I had the meet of my life on 3-meter and I was able to win against Georgia Tech. … I had my first ever college meet against a D1 program which was amazing, and the team was super supportive.”
After a successful season last season on both the men’s and women’s side, Howell said the team’s current focus is on short-term goals and consistently improving.
“We’re just really trying to get a bit better every day and every week and see if we can make some progress,” Howell said. “That’s how we’ve always built success as a team is this development, so that’s really what we’re focused on right now.”
