Men's and Women's Swimming & Diving
2007-08 Preview/Recap

Trinity Men's Preview of 2007-08

The Trinity University Men’s Swimming and Diving team enjoyed a successful 2006 – 2007 season, training hard and winning enough meets along the way to prepare itself for a terrific conference championship meet in Crawfordsville, Indiana on the weekend of February 7 – 10, 2007.  The team faced a tough battle at the 2007 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships, finishing in the runner-up position to DePauw University and winning a duel to the end with Centre College, Colorado College, and the University of the South.

Leading the Tigers charge at the SCAC’s were seniors Dan Petersen and Evan O’Dea, both closing out their college careers with winning swims.  Petersen captured his fourth consecutive 200 IM crown on the meet’s opening night, and chased that with a win in the 100 backstroke on the following evening.  O’Dea won his first-ever 500 freestyle title in the meet’s opening finals session, marking the 9^th straight Trinity win over this particular distance.  A Trinity Tiger has won the 500 freestyle at every SCAC Championship since the inception of the conference meet, and before that they captured every 500 freestyle title in the three year history of the SCAC Invitational.  This is a streak that T.U. will strive to keep alive in 2008.

Both Petersen and O’Dea graduated in the spring of 2007, leaving a small yet tough band of swimmers and divers to carry on the honorable tradition of swimming well at the SCAC’s premier meet.  Returning to the fray for the 2007 – 2008 season are several able swimmers and divers.  Ryan Cook (Katy, TX) is one of the best of that pack, having earned All-SCAC and All-American honors during each of his first three seasons in San Antonio.  Cook is a senior and will serve as the captain of the men’s diving squad, which will also include Travis Mills (Boerne, TX) and Austin Whelan (Littleton, CO).  The NCAA Championships will be held at Miami University (Ohio) in March, and Cook will have a chance to test those boards in December when Coach Stan Randall takes his divers up into the snow-belt for an invitational meet.

Other stellar returnees include senior men’s swimming captain Will Basinger (Albuquerque, NM), winner of the conference 200 butterfly title in both 2005 and 2007 (he also won the 500 freestyle in 2006).  Basinger is after Ryan Van Der Kar’s school record in the 200 butterfly this winter.  If he can accomplish that goal, he’ll be competing at the NCAA’s in March.  Additional All-SCAC performers reporting back for competitive duty include Kyle Boe (Cypress, TX), Spencer Hill (Bend, OR), and Graham Mullings (Magnolia, TX).  Boe was the surprise runner-up in last year’s 200 IM, and returned to campus physically stronger than he’s ever been.  Hill will be a threat in the backstroke events (he was runner-up in the 200 back in 2007), and Mullings had big final finishes in the 50, the 100, and the 200 freestyle events.  They will be joined by Sean Benton (Spring, TX), Grant Quimby (Bryan, TX), Andrew Shane (Potomac, MD), Thomas Spickler (Southlake, TX), and Ben Hayes (Shorewood, MN).

Several first-year athletes are expected to contribute to the Tigers chances for a higher SCAC point total in 2008.  Freestyle ace Taylor Clark (Spring, TX) is expected to make a run at the conference 500 record this February if he stays both healthy and ‘hungry’ between now and then.  Others with the ability to make a positive impact include Logan May (Boise, ID), Ken Rogge (Edmond, OK), Patrick Smith (Kingwood, TX), Chris Cavin (Oklahoma City, OK), Jack Foreman (Friendswood, TX), and Nick Chan (Missouri City, TX).

“We’ll be a little deeper this year than we were last season,” states Coach John Ryan.  “Although depth will still be an issue when we get to conference in February,” points out the head coach.  SCAC team titles are always on the T.U. radar screen however, and Trinity would love to close the gap on last year’s point spread with DePauw.  For that to happen, every Trinity swimmer will have to have the meet of their life in Dallas come February

Trinity’s underclass talent pool is good, which bodes well for the future.  Coach Ryan is hoping that as the conference matures and as each of the SCAC’s nine teams gets better, Trinity’s chances of outscoring DePauw, Centre, Sewanee, et. al. will improve.  According to Ryan, “Top three finishes in individual events and relay wins will determine the overall team results over the next several years.  There is going to be a lot of opportunity for talented swimmers and divers who decide to attend Trinity.”  In the meantime, the Tigers have to fight hard this winter if they are to retain their current SCAC rankings.