What got past us last week...
What got past us last week...
An arbitrary and incomplete look-back at stuff we missed from the previous weekend.
Marymount (Virginia) and St. Mary’s of Maryland (SMCM) got into it
This week we are using a lot of maps. In case you don’t know where these schools are, or can’t keep straight every higher education institution with some variation of ‘Marymount’ or ‘St. Mary’s’ in the name, this should help.
SMCM’s Luke Schwenk
Reader’s may remember Luke Schwenk (confusingly listed as ‘James’ in the Hy-Tek) who was the sole representative of St. Mary’s College of Maryland at last season’s Nationals. Mr. Schwenk swam two events - 50 Free and 100 Free - B-finaling in both. It was an impressive performance and the cap to quite a year in which Mr. Schwenk:
Received All-America Honorable Mention for the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle events.
Was named Atlantic East Swimmer of the Year.
Achieved First Team All-Atlantic East honors in 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 100 butterfly, and 400 medley relay, while earning Second Team All-Atlantic East for 200 freestyle relay and 200 medley relay.
Was awarded Atlantic East Swimmer of the Week three times and selected for the Atlantic East All-Academic Team.
It was quite a year for the SMCM Seahawks. At their conference meet, St. Mary's College distinguished itself with 11 appearances on the podium. Mr. Schwenk set a new record in the 100 freestyle. Meanwhile, Robert Shively, a first-year from Potomac (Walt Whitman) established a new conference record in the 200 butterfly.
But conference rivals Marymount University (Virginia) took first place on the Men’s side. Marymount also won on the Women’s side, the first time one program (other than Cabrini) claimed conference championships on both the Men’s and Women’s side since the founding of the fledgling Atlantic East.
Marymount momentum
Entering the second month of the season, SwimCloud has Marymount still ranked atop the conference, with the SMCM Seahawks not far behind.
Last weekend the two teams joined up with Cabrini for a tri-meet and Marymount prevailed, on both the Men’s and Women’s sides, with SMCM again coming in second.
This is an interesting moment, where SMCM has the stand-out Nationals-level swimmer with a lot of high-end talent around him, but Marymount appears to have the depth needed to dominate their increasingly competitive conference.
The recent surge at Marymount seems to coincide with the appointment of their new head-coach.1 Chris Natoli is entering his third season as the head Men's and Women's Swimming Coach. He had a lot of success at D1 George Mason, and is a long-time coach in DC Metro’s legendary NCAP swim club, where he continues to coach the usual NCAP parade of national age-group record holders and high school All-Americans.
There’s an unmistakable aggressiveness to this Marymount team. Their scheduling decisions are eye-popping - Randolph-Macon, then Catholic, then Mary Washington, then SMCM again at the Seahawks’ home pool, then Salisbury (!). This is a take-all-comers approach that deserves respect, from a team that appears unafraid to find out just how good they really are.
The previous head-coach at Marymount had a lot of success of his own. And appears to be a bona fide hero who saved a stranger from drowning.