2006-07 Team Preview
Coming off a third-place Centennial Conference finish in the 2005-2006 season, Swarthmore men's swimming will look to an established set of experienced upperclassmen as well as the promise of successful showings from last year's rookies to challenge for the Centennial Conference Championship this season.
In 2005-06, the team finished 4-6 overall and 4-2 within the conference and swam strong by winning six medals at the season-ending Centennial Conference Championships. This season, head coach Sue Davis has the team competing in nine dual meets and one two-day tournament at Franklin & Marshall, as well as embarking on a 10-day training trip to Puerto Rico. The team concludes the regular season at the Centennial Conference Championships, hosted in Lancaster, Pa. by Franklin & Marshall.
Returning to lead the Garnet will be a pair of record-setting sophomores: Douglas Gilchrist-Scott and Stephen Shymon. Gilchrist-Scott, a freestyle and backstroke sprinter, set a school record last season in the 100 freestyle at 47.67, less than a second from the national B cut time of 46.78. He also secured the second fastest time for the 50 freestyle in school history at 21.95. At the Conference Championships he was a member of the silver medal-winning 400 medley relay team, the bronze medal-winning 200 medley team, and also won the silver in the 100 backstroke. In 2006-07, look for Gilchrist-Scott to be a strong contributor both as an individual and in the medley relay.
Shymon is a distance specialist, setting school records in the 1650, 1000, and 500 freestyles last season with times of 16:22.47, 9:59.17, and 4:42.80, respectively. He was able to secure a bronze medal in the 400 IM at the Centennial Conference Championships, and during the time trials, made the national B cut in the 1650 Freestyle with his school record time.
Swarthmore boasts two of the top freestyle distance swimmers in the Centennial - Shymon and junior Andrew Frampton. Frampton took down a nine-year old mark in the 1000 freestyle (10:02.75) in 2004-05 and then shaved 11 seconds off a seven-year old record in the 1650 freestyle (16:43.60) later in the season. Shymon has since lowered those marks, but the two are sure to lock horns in practice and at meets, pushing each other to set lower times.
Swarthmore also returns the entire 200 yard medley team consisting of Gilchrist-Scott '09, Andrew Koczo '07, Brian Roth '09, and Jon Augat '07 - the four men brought home the bronze at the CC Championships with a time of 1:38.36, a heart-beat away from a top-five time in the school record books. The top 400 yard medley relay is also returning; Gilchrist-Scott, Koczo, Roth, and Jason Horwitz '07 combined efforts to deliver a silver medal (3:34.18) at the Championships, a mere three seconds off the lead.
The Garnet open the 2006-07 season with three consecutive home meets, beginning with a non-conference dual meet with local rival Widener on Wed., Nov. 1 at 6:30 p.m. The Centennial Conference portion of the schedule begins on Sat., Nov. 4 when McDaniel visits Ware Pool at 2:00 p.m.