Courtesy: Wheaton Athletics
Wheaton Swimming & Diving wrapped up three weekends of Blue-Orange Cup racing with an intra-squad version of Wheaton Invite on Thursday and Friday, November 5-6. On three days of rest the team achieved 44 lifetime bests and one school record. Although the NCAA Division 3 national top times list has a (significantly) reduced level of participation, Wheaton Swimmers nonetheless achieved 14 nationally ranked #1 times.
Just as importantly, the team was able to continue many of our Wheaton Invitatil traditions, continue to foster a love and excitement for the support, and to create an exciting atmosphere for racing in a year when very little feels normal.
Lastly, we were able to honor our outgoing seniors with a surprise Senior Ceremony, including a slideshow on our new scoreboard which included surprise video messages from all their families! You can see the slideshow itself here (it’s a big file and the messages from the parents and the youth pictures begin at about 45 seconds),
Other special achievements included junior Ben Griffith setting a varsity record in the 100 IM (52.09), plus Wheaton setting an unofficial team record for having the most breaststrokers on the team under 1:00 at the same time (six!) as freshman Andrew Rogers (59.93) and senior Christian Cameron (59.96) broke one minute for the first time.
Those swimmers with nationally ranked number one times for the women include Abby Rutlege (200 back, 100 fly) and Abby Pardridge (100 br, 50 fly, 100 IM, 200 IM), plus the 200 medley relay of Rutlege, Kiki Rogers, Pardridge, and K.P. Peters (1:47.60).
Those swimmers with nationally ranked number one times for the men include Anthony Fitzgerald (100 breast), Ethan Kile (200 breast), Will Rinne (50 fly, 200 IM), Dawson Bremner (100 fly, 200 fly), and Ben Griffith (100 IM)
The seniors we honored were Christian Cameron, Joshua Dull, Kendra Ecklund, Kristin (Mckenna) Lenderink, Emily Meitz, Kirsten (KP) Peters, Christopher Plimpton, William Rinne, and Katherine (Kiki) Rogers.
Way to go Big Ben!!!
Congratulations to the Coaches Ayers in being creative and competitive in an unsure time.