MU Swim and Dive Team Make History
Carly Kwiecien
The Manchester University swim and dive team made history by competing in their first Ohio Athletic Conference Championships in Akron, Ohio last weekend.
The women’s team earned 157 total points over three days of competition, placing in seventh place out of seven teams. The men’s team tallied 125 points, also finishing seventh.
“The team has worked very hard this year, and this meet provided a great opportunity to showcase that work,” said Mike Kroll, head Swimming and Diving Coach. “The Ohio Athletic Conference as a whole is a great conference that provided not only great competition for us, but also provided an atmosphere for us to enjoy and have fun.”
One of those who stood out and succeeded greatly was sophomore diver Ally Roskos. On the final day of the 2016 OAC, Roskos earned a 404.25 mark, her second time hitting a mark of 400 points or more this season.
The first time Roskos scored over 400 points was at the 2016 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Invitational at Franklin College on Jan. 23.
“I went into this meet just hoping to dive well and whatever happened, happened,” Roskos said. “I wasn’t going to be upset about it, so getting over a 400 again felt very accomplishing.”
Roskos will continue her season this weekend at the NCAA Division III Central Region Diving Championships hosted by Denison University of Granville, Ohio.
“I know it is going to be tough competition this weekend, so my goals are for me to just dive my best and give it my all,” Roskos said. “I don’t want to have any regrets after this meet. Even if I don’t move on to Nationals, I just want to feel good about my performance.”
Among the other female competitors, first-year Jamie McBride finished fourth in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:51.76), third in the 200-yard individual medley (2:32.1) and participated in the 200-yard medley relay team for a fourth-place finish.
First-year Nichole VonHolten also competed in the 200-yard medley relay. Additionally, she placed fifth in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 3:08.61.
The women's 200-yard freestyle relay team of sophomore Annika Harley and first years VonHolten and Annika Barce and junior Ashton Krider finished with a time of 2:01.6, leading them to a seventh-place finish.
The 400-yard medley group of Barce, sophomore Emily Clark, and first-years McBride and Mikki Goetz finished with a time of 4:31.91, also earning a seventh-place finish.
Individually, Goetz swam a 6:00.4 in the 500-yard freestyle to top the previous record by three-thousandths.
In the men’s competition, first-year Andrew Hinds swam a 2:03.85 in the 200-yard individual medley. He finished third place in the 100-yard breaststroke in 64.66, and finished for a top eight mark in the 200-yard breaststroke.
First-years Guerby Ruuska and Quinn-Michael L’Heureux finished in the top eight in the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard individual medley relay.
The men’s 400-yard medley relay team of first-years Hinds, Ruuska, L’Heureux and Nathan Koch placed sixth with a time of 3:52.75, breaking the school record by three and a half seconds.
With the season completed, the swimmers and divers are reflecting on their accomplishments.
“Looking back on the season, I'm glad I joined the team because I've made a bunch of new friends and I've really established a group that I can call a family at Manchester,” Koch said. “I also think of this year as an adjustment year. I've been so used to jumping from team to team with no set amount of yardage in practice that I've been unable to settle to a certain program. I was finally able to get that this year and I know it's going to help me progress even further next year.”