Despite a rough overall season, the Bishops swim strong at its end and break records

Despite Ohio Wesleyan’s eighth place finish in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Championship, individual swimmers and divers finished the season strong.
The championship took place in Canton, Ohio over a four-day period starting Feb. 15 and ending on the 18. At the meet OWU swimmers and divers shattered records and ended the season on a good note.
OWU women’s 400 medley relay record, which has been in place since 1991, was cleared from the record books when senior Anne McComas and sophomores Kate Helfrich, Melissa Ward, and Olivia Gillison broke the record on the second day of the competition.
McComas said all members of the relay swam the best time they had all season. “It was very exciting to break the school record, we had tried for the record last year, but missed it in this event by a few tenths of a second,” she said.
“This year our goal was to go out and swim our best and if we got the record it would just be an added bonus to a great swim,” McComas said.
Freshman Matthew Mahoney led the Bishops with the best individual finish on the second day of the competition.
Mahoney said it felt great to know that his good performance helped set the tone for the meet.
“The team as a whole performed very well at conference and we had many individuals place high in their events and drop large amounts of time in their races,” Mahoney said.
He said that the swim team had many individuals step up and demonstrate how talented the team is and placed in the finals.
Senior Ali Russ said it was one of the best jobs they had done in her four years at OWU.
“Even though we have some of the fastest teams in the nation in our conference including Kenyon, Denison and a new addition this year, DePauw, we were able to swim fast and compete very well at our conference meet,” Russ said.