Challenge Accepted

Head Coach Brian Thomas began what would become perhaps the finest day in GW swimming and diving history using a credit card to chisel ice off the windshield of a rented SUV before sunrise.

A fresh coating of ice briefly delayed departure for the 400 IM swimmers headed to SPIRE Institute for a 6:45 a.m. wakeup swim, and snow continued to fall throughout a frigid winter day in Northeast Ohio.

"It was just one of those things that was a potential roadblock, but our team seemed to be prepared for everything," Thomas said. "It was just a microcosm, to me, of how our season went. Anything we could lean on as excuses we didn't even think about. We just moved on to the next thing."

A few hours later, Thomas gathered his full group poolside and told them this was the most important day in program history as they battled to stay on top of both team standings.

Then, Andrea Moussier, Julia Knox and Molly Smyers set the tone for the excellence to come by punching their tickets into the women's 400 IM championship final with career-best times.

By the time prelims were done, the Buff and Blue had booked 28 individual A final and six B final slots across five swimming events and the women's 3-meter diving board.

"That's ridiculous," Thomas said. "Not much surprises me after 17 years of coaching, but 28 A finalists and six B finalists, that's pretty unheard of. Every single event was lights out."

That momentum continued into a memorable evening session in which the program piled up points, highlighted by 15 total medals.

Barbara Schaal landed a pair of individual bronzes and then swam the fly leg on the 400 medley relay team that took silver by dropping more than three seconds off the previous program record. Knox (400 IM) and Marlee Rickert (100 back) posted new program bests as part of their own medal swims.

Four of the 10 medals were gold for the men, including a sweep of the podium in the 100 fly led by Durde Matic in a meet-record time. The Buff and Blue accounted for half of the championship final in that race and placed four among the top 11 finishers in the 200 free and 100 back, as well.

When the day was done, the Buff and Blue had answered Thomas' challenge in emphatic fashion, essentially clinching a pair of team titles with one day of competition left to go.

"It's honestly a feeling I don't think I'll ever forget," said Smyers, who finished sixth in the 400 IM in a career-best time of 4:20.50. "Just thinking about those sessions now, I can channel back to how exciting it was."
GW swimming and diving cheers at the A-10 Championships.

GW swimming and diving cheers at the A-10 Championships.

That special Friday, from Moussier's strong 400 IM in the first heat of the morning to a golden swim from Matic, Marek Osina, Karol Mlynarczyk, and Tyler Kawakami in the night-closing men's 400 medley relay, sticks out amid a historic week.

On both sides, the Buff and Blue separated themselves from the pack, becoming the first program to sweep the team titles at the meet since Massachusetts in 2001.

"This group was up for the challenge," said Thomas, who became the first to sweep both Coach of the Year awards since West Virginia's Kevin Gilson in 1994. "They've shown us throughout the year that they like that kind of thing. They'll sink their teeth into it, I think, because they know they're capable."

On the strength of 28 medals, with 14 of them gold, and double-digit points from all 18 individual scorers, the men recorded 879.5 points, more than any men's team in the meet's history, on the way to a convincing victory.

Winner of seven gold medals, Osina was named Most Outstanding Performer, while Connor Rodgers took home Most Outstanding Rookie Performer honors in recognition of a win in the 500 free and a third-place finish in the 200 fly.

The women showcased their depth with 20 scorers combining for 701.5 points, nearly 200 clear of second-place Duquesne. They earned 17 medals, including a pair of golds for senior Erin McCarthy and podium finishes in all five relays, for the week.

That dominance made for an unforgettable finish with both teams hoisting championship trophies and then leaping into the pool together to celebrate.

"It was really something," said Matic, who claimed seven golds and set A-10 records in the 50 free and 200 fly in his debut at the meet. "Everyone had the victory. Not just the men or women's team, everyone was together in it. It was a really, really special moment for the whole team."

The final results over four days offered a staggering testament to that team effort.

The Buff and Blue totaled 65 new entries on the program's all-time top-10 list, including 11 program records. In all, 22 individuals garnered All-Conference honors.

The highlights came fast and furious spanning the roster. The 11 rookies in the scoring lineup combined for an astounding 376 points with golds for Rodgers and Philip Moldovanu, while veterans like Moussier, Isabel Berdecio, Courtney Sicinski, Dylan Arzoni, Josh Legge and DH Hwang qualified for A finals with massive time drops.

A senior from Minnesota, McCarthy became the first Buff and Blue woman to win two swimming events since 2004, classmate Ryan Patterson picked up his first two individual medals with bronze in both backstroke events and graduate student Carly Perri battled through a shoulder injury to crack the podium with a third-place finish in the 200 fly.

Diver Spencer Bystrom reached the podium on both 1-meter and 3-meter, and Jamie Doak, Dara Reyblat and Caitlin Inall combined to contribute 73 points to the women's total with their work on the boards.

Every step of the way, the raucous cheering from the Buff and Blue contingent made a difference in pushing their teammates to those new heights.

"That is nothing that I have ever experienced before," said Knox, a first-year from Northern Ireland who reached the podium in both the 200 IM and 400 IM with program-record swims. "I was nervous until I walked out and saw everyone cheering. Then, I just felt relaxed like, 'Yeah, I can definitely do this.'"
Members of GW swimming and diving hug at the A-10 Championships.

Members of GW swimming and diving hug at the A-10 Championships.

To Thomas, the collective performance under pressure on Friday showcased his program at its best.

After declaring the day's unprecedented importance headed into the morning session, the veteran coach wondered if he'd raised the stakes too high, but in one race after another, his group showed they were ready for the moment.

"For a long time, I've been waiting for our team to do some things I knew we were capable of doing and take some steps forward that I knew we could take – and we started to do that on that Friday," Thomas said.

Some 15 hours after starting his day by using a bit of Massachusetts-raised ingenuity to clear the ice off his rental, Thomas gathered his team in the hotel before sending them off to bed.

Event by event, he went down the list of shining performances from record-breaking stars to unsung heroes, allowing the Buff and Blue to celebrate each other one more time after a job well done.

"Everyone stepped up that day," Matic said. "In a meet that's so long, it's really easy to stop when things become hard, but we managed to help each other out and push each other to swim better."

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Players Mentioned

Dylan Arzoni

Isabel Berdecio

Spencer Bystrom

Jamie Doak

DH Hwang

Caitlin Inall

Tyler Kawakami

Julia Knox

Josh Legge

Djurdje Matic

Erin McCarthy

Karol Mlynarczyk

Philip Moldovanu

Andrea Moussier

Marek Osina

Ryan Patterson

Carly Perri

Dara Reyblat

Marlee Rickert

Connor Rodgers

Barbara Schaal

Courtney Sicinski

Molly Smyers

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