Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs, Georgia has achieved full and unrestricted membership in the NCAA Division II. This completes a two-year provisional membership period where the school was limited from participation in NCAA post-season competition, though the school’s men’s and women’s swim teams did compete at the Sun Coast Conference Championships and the ECAC Championships.
The school now becomes a full member of the Conference Carolinas, which has schools throughout North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. Conference Carolina sponsored their first women’s swimming & diving championship last season with 5 teams: Barton, Converse, Chowan, Limestone, and King. Limestone has since cut their men’s and women’s swimming & diving programs, leaving the conference with still just 5 sponsored programs.
The Conference Carolinas’ men’s swimming & diving programs competed at the Bluegrass Mountain Championships last season, where they race against national powers Queens and Wingate, among others.
Both Emmanuel College teams won the Sun Coast Conference Championships last season: a multi-division conference that includes Division III and independent teams. The women then finished 10th at the ECAC Championships, while the men took 3rd.
Included among the team’s swimmers is rising junior Alex Sobers, who represented Barbados at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. He’s the school record holdere in 6 events, including the 200 yard free (1:35.95) and 500 yard free (4:27.56).
Emmanuel College was formerly a member of the NAIA. The school carries a massive roster of sponsored sports, with 15 men’s teams and 15 women’s teams, including squads in lower-sponsorship sports like archery, men’s and women’s bowling, men’s volleyball, and clay target shooting.
Awesome!