The Elizabethtown College men’s swim team dominated the struggling Stevenson Mustangs on Saturday, Nov. 13, at Etown’s Alumni Pool. Etown won 10 of 13 events in a meet that ended 186-46.
The men’s team improves to 3-2 on the year after the victory, while Stevenson moves down to 1-5. Etown won both of the relay events, sweeping the men’s 200-yard medley relay, and won eight of the 10 individual events.
The meet was destined to be an Etown victory, as Stevenson has an extremely small team and some of the races were uncontested for the Blue Jays.
“Stevenson is not a large team and even though we raced some of the events uncontested, our athletes still put up a strong showing racing their teammates,” head coach Melissa Rohrer said.
Stevenson’s men’s team is a team of just five, and three of the five are freshmen. On the other hand, Etown has a full roster of 21 athletes.
Despite the lack of competition, the Blue Jays showed what they were capable of on Saturday afternoon.
The young first-year class continued to dominate the pool, winning six of the 10 individual events. First-year Franky Swain seemed unbeatable in the backstroke as he won both the men’s 50-yard backstroke and the men’s 100-yard backstroke. Similarly, first-year Connor Oswald won both of the breaststroke events.
Additionally, first-years Zain Wegman and AJ West won events for the Blue Jays.
“The freshman class is a strong group, and they bring much enthusiasm to the team. I am looking forward to seeing them continue to improve throughout their time here,” Rohrer said when asked about how the freshman class has helped the team succeed.
Sophomore Dylan Fitzgerald won the men’s 200-yard freestyle and junior Kale Decker won the 500-yard freestyle.
“We are at a point in the training cycle where we are working very hard at practices and can get very tired during the week, so it was encouraging to see that, despite that, we were still able to put up fast times,” Rohrer said.
The upcoming practices will begin to get less intense as the Blue Jays are preparing for the Gettysburg Invitational in three weeks. The Blue Jays have raced in this event before in the 2019-2020 season and had an unfortunate showing, finishing in last place. However, this Elizabethtown team seems to be stronger and should put up a good fight in the event.
Next week, the team will stay at home and take on the Catholic University Cardinals, which will be the second conference meet of the season. The Cardinals are currently 2-1 and have a full roster, unlike Stevenson. The Cardinals have beat the Blue Jays every time in the past five years, but the Blue Jays strong first-year class is looking to change that. You can catch the meet at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 20 at Alumni Pool.
