LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Bellarmine College males’s and girls’s swim groups are underway of their third season in Division I.
The Knights opened their season on Sunday on the Butler Double Twin and can compete 10 extra instances within the common season which ends in January. Bellarmine may also ship swimmers to the CCSA Swimming & Diving Championships scheduled for Feb. 15-18 in Knoxville, Tenn.
“Total, we’ve had a a lot improved working atmosphere in our coaching classes which has been a lot enhanced by having 4 coaches on deck to supply suggestions and encouragement to our swimmers,” Knights Head Coach John Brucato stated heading into the season.
Brucato returns for his 11th season as the lads’s and girls’s swim coach in 2022-23. He’s joined by Gord Veldman, who was promoted to full-time assistant coach this summer season. Veldman has been teaching the Bellarmine applications, nevertheless, for the previous eight years. Grace (Roegner) McCormick and Mariia Astashkina are additionally on the teaching workers.
Final 12 months represented the primary full season of motion within the Division I period for each squads. The boys’s and girls’s groups each earned their first wins since becoming a member of DI towards Centre Faculty final season. The Bellarmine ladies additionally claimed wins versus Butler and Japanese Illinois. The boys’s workforce additionally bested EIU for its second win of the 2021-22 season.
On the CCSA Championships, the lads’s squad earned 9 top-10 finishes, together with a silver medal efficiency within the 200 butterfly from Matthew Sims. Anna Holt had the very best end on the CCSA Championships for the ladies, inserting fifth within the 200 butterfly.
Total, a number of program record-setting performances had been earned on the CCSA Championships in February:
Males’s Particular person:
–Will O’Connor (20.77 within the 50 freestyle)
–Matthew Sims (1:41.27 within the 200 freestyle)
–Daniel Sims (1:50.02 within the 200 IM)
Males’s Relay:
–Jacob Dray, Aubrey Archer Adams, Logan Jackson, Will O’Connor (1:23.33 within the 200 freestyle)
–Matthew Sims, Brandon Thomas, Greyson Williams, Daniel Sims (6:49.94 within the 800 freestyle)
Ladies’s Particular person:
–Maya Sorensen (26:54 within the 50 backstroke)
Whereas Bellarmine brings again a formidable group of younger expertise, many elite swimmers from final season graduated.
Matthew Sims completed his exceptional Bellarmine profession as this system file holder within the 200 freestyle (1:41.27), 200 butterfly (1:45.62), and 400 IM (3:56.80). He was a 2x Division II All-American within the 200 butterfly (2019 and 2020) and earned Bellarmine’s first Division I particular person convention championship within the 200 butterfly in 2021. His brother, Daniel, completed his Bellarmine profession as this system file holder within the 200 breaststroke (2:00.25), 100 IM (53.70), 200 IM (1:50.02), and 400 IM (3:56.80). He medaled twice in Bellarmine’s first DI convention championships (2021 CCSA Championships), incomes silver within the 200 breaststroke and bronze within the 800 freestyle relay.
For the ladies, Rachel Walker completed her illustrious Bellarmine profession as a file holder in 10 occasions – the 100 freestyle (51.76), 200 freestyle (1:50.74), 500 freestyle (4:57.55), 1000 freestyle (10:10.81), 1650 freestyle (16:55.07), and 100 butterfly (55:01). She was additionally a part of the record-holding 400 freestyle relay workforce (3:31.98), 800 freestyle relay workforce (7:39.71), 200 medley relay workforce (1:42.04), and 400 medley relay workforce (3:45.57)…Named a Division II All-American within the 500 freestyle and Honorable-Point out All-American within the 200 medley relay and 400 medley relay in 2020. Maya Sorensen additionally graduated, ending her Bellarmine profession as this system record-holder within the 50 backstroke (26.54) and 100 backstroke (57.70). She was a part of the record-holding 200 medley relay workforce (1:42.04) and 400 medley relay workforce (3:45.57), together with being named a Division II Honorable-Point out All-American within the 200 medley relay and 400 medley relay.
As for this season, the ladies’s workforce returns senior Anna Holt, who claimed Bellarmine’s greatest particular person end on the 2022 CCSA Championships (fifth within the 200 butterfly). Holt additionally received CCSA Swimmer of the Week final November. Alexandra Pierce returns for her sophomore season after incomes 4 first place finishes final 12 months, together with junior Elizabeth Stevenson who claimed a pair of firsts final 12 months.
Different seniors becoming a member of Holt are Caraline Baker, Kayla Effinger, Kerry Effinger, Olivia Hopper, and Lauren Rowe.
Alongside Stevenson within the junior class are Morgan Bender, Mackenzie Conger, Emily Kuprion, Grace Lough, Megan McEwen, Caroline McMillin, and Ashley Owen.
The sophomore swimmers with Pierce this season are Johnnise Garcia, and Megan Wills.
The freshmen group for the Bellarmine ladies’s workforce consists of Luiza Bonardi, Abby Caudill, Lauren Diercks, and Lauren Peters.
“With the ladies’s workforce, our major objective is to un-tap the potential of each particular person,” Brucato added. “I consider our energy is the facility and capability for whole funding in one another every day and each teammate understanding the significance of the position they play in reaching this. We now have a number of potential level scorers at our convention championships from flyer and distance swimmer Anna Holt – our most constant scorer eventually 12 months’s meets – to first 12 months swimmer Lauren Diercks within the backstroke.”
For the lads, senior Jacob Dray is again after recording three first place finishes final season. Dray has additionally beforehand had massive success on the CCSA Championships with a silver medal within the 100 butterfly in 2021. Fellow senior Will O’Connor holds this system file within the 50 freestyle, which earned him a top-10 end on the 2022 CCSA Championships. Sophomore Brandon Thomas can be again after racing to 5 first-place finishes final season. Thomas earned CCSA Swimmer of the Week in November of final season.
The seniors becoming a member of Dray and O’Connor on the roster this 12 months are Aubrey Archer Adams, Logan Jackson, Sam Russell, and Brendan Verna.
The junior swimmers this season include Tyler Diercks, Nicholas Inexperienced, Keegan Henderson, Andrew Nguyen, Carter Reynolds, Kenton Whiteley, and Greyson Williams.
Alongside Thomas within the sophomore class are Matt Carrico, Tanner Dunn, and John Paul Metzner.
The freshman class is made up of Liam Connelly, Cason Henderson, Caleb Howard, Sam Jones, Brady Koval, Anthony Nasrallah, Jack Proctor, Blake Whiteley, and Drew Wolfram.
“We now have extra versatility and subsequently stability on the lads’s workforce than any 12 months earlier,” Brucato stated. “What’s very encouraging is our potential to race from seniors like Jacob Dray and Will O’Connor to our new swimmers like Blake Whiteley and Cason Henderson in 200 backstroke and butterfly respectively.”
Bellarmine is subsequent scheduled to compete in a double twin versus Saint Louis College and UMSL this Saturday at 3:00 p.m. in Saint Louis.
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