After hosting the Sun Belt Conference swimming championships last season and finishing second on both the men and women’s ends the Pioneers were looking for an improvement last weekend in Nashville, Tenn. Unfortunately at the end of the three-day competition things were looking quite similiar for DU who again finished second in the men’s competition and third on the women’s side.
It was a season of changes for the Pioneers who said goodbye to three-year Head Coach Jim Henry during the off-season. Henry lead Denver to a 61-29 record and was named the SBC men’s and women’s coach of the year at last season’s championships.
DU gave a welcome to new head coach and former University of Georgia assistant coach, Brian Schrader.
This past weekend in Nashville saw the Pioneers struggle out of the gate as the men finished fourth and women third aftter the first day of competition.
The struggles did not last for long for the men as they quickly jumped to second and the women stayed at third after the second day.
On Saturday, the last day of swimming and diving competition, the Pioneers were looking for more improvements in the standings. But found themselves in the same spots at the end of the day.
The weekend did not come without many solid individual and team finishes in the pool and on the diving board.
Junior Kelsey Totura won the women’s 200-backstroke event with an SBC record time of 1:57:32 and qualified for the NCAA regionals. Totura was also named the SBC women’s swimmer of the year despite the Pioneers finishing in third place.
Totura wasn’t the only one getting the big honor, DU men’s diver Aaron Feight won his second straight male diver of the year. While Jeff Carter was named male diving coach of the year and Schrader the same on the swimming side.
Other solid performer’s were senior Craig Jollands who finished in first and a school-record time of 15:33:04 in the men’s 1650 free. Junior Nathan West touched the wall in fourth in the same event with a time of 15:46:28.
On the women’s side senior Harmony Zeller finished fourth in the 1650 free with a time of 17:08:45 and freshman Amanda McNally in eighth.
Totura was followed by a fellow Pioneer during her record-setting backstroke finish. Sophomore Michelle Lowry turned in a second place finish at 2:02:76.
In the men’s 200-breaststroke, junior Marcus Christianson finished third in a school-record time of 2:03:71. Not far behind was sophomore Nick Brunger who turned in a fifth place finish.
Freshman Olivia Dean finished fourth in the women’s 200-butterfly event.
The relay’s proved to be equally successful for DU as the women won the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:27:83. The men finished third in the same event.
On the diving side of things, Feight continued to show his dominance in Sun Belt Conference play as he won both the 1-meter and 3-meter events. Finishing second in the 3-meter was sophomore Cody Stambaugh.
For the women, junior Holly Watson finished fourth and sophomore Hannah Duckett in seventh in the 3-meter competition. In the 1-meter, Duckett agained placed seventh and Watson in eighth.
Overall as a team on the weekend the men finished with 665 points behind champion Western Kentucky’s 734 points.
The female’s finished with 581 points behind second-place Western Kentucky (767.5) and champion Florida Atlantic (901.5).
The Pioneers will be losing six men’s and three women’s swimmers to graduation. They will again look for that first-place finish with a strong returning group.
