This week Hopkins men's swimming garnered its second ECAC Championship in three years.
"We won it two years ago and wanted to get back to that level," senior co-captain Tyler Harris said.
The Blue Jays were one of one three Division III schools competing at the championships.
"The Division I schools really don't respect us until they realize we are winning," Harris said. "We just swim and our team speaks for itself." Overall 19 schools, including Ivy League Yale University, vied for the title this past weekend in Pittsburgh. Yale came in second, while Marist College took third.
"This was one of our best efforts since I have been here," head coach George Kennedy said. "Quite frankly, we didn't swim very well on the first day and the team rebounded and swam as well as they could have on the second and third days. The team bounced back after struggling and they learned a lot from this."
On Saturday night, Hopkins moved into first place and held the lead through to the end of the meet. The jump to first was made possible by sophomore Ryan Kim's win in the 100-yard backstroke that night. Kim finished in a time of 50.48, a season-best, which qualified him for the NCAA Division III Championships in the event.
"The seniors were the leaders and everyone stepped it up following their lead," Kennedy said. "Winning as a team was the result of [seniors] Sean Kim, Gary Itskovich, Zane Hamilton, Brian Sneed and Tyler Harris and their desire to excel. We have 15 men going to NCAAs this year and I feel very good about this team."
Kennedy isn't the only one who feels that way.
"The team is getting ready to go and all 15 of us are ready to perform at our best," said Harris. "This past weekend Ryan Kim, Sean Kim, [freshman] John Kegelmen, [sophomore] Matt Fedderly, [junior] Kevin Walsh and [freshman] Colin Kleinguetal all had great swims. So we are looking forward to a great meet in Minnesota."
"This past weekend was only a taste of what's to come at NCAAs," senior Zane Hamilton said.
Fedderly placed second in the 400-yard individual medley with an NCAA-qualifying time of 4:07.73. In the 100-yard butterfly, Sean Kim finished in a season-best time of 50.70, good for fifth place. Itskovich finished just a second and two places behind Kim, and sophomore Brad Test placed eighth in 57.80.
"ECACs turned out to be a fantastic conference meet this year," said Sean Kim, a co-captain. "The goal of this meet is always to make qualifying times for NCAAs in March and we had a lots of success in doing so. This year at NCAAs we will have full representation from the upperclassmen, in addition to the many freshman and sophomores that have qualified."
Kegelman had a season-best time in the 200-yard breaststroke of 2:05.43. The time was an NCAA provisional-qualifying mark for him. Junior Kevin Walsh finished sixth in the 100-yard freestyle,
scoring more needed points for the Blue Jays.
"This weekend we used the momentum of several lifetime best times to win the meet," said Sean Kim. "Some of the highlights were Colin Kleinguetl's mile and Ryan Kim's 100-yard backstroke. True teamwork was shown when our 200-yard freestylers stepped it up in order to qualify our 800-yard freestyle relay."
Kleinguetl won the 1650-yard freestyle in a time of 15:57.21, 29 seconds better than his previous best time. The time was also good for an NCAA provisional qualification time. Qualification times will be announced Mar. 2 by the NCAA. Ryan Kim also scored points in the 200-yard backstroke. He finished third with a time of 1:50.92, which qualified him for the NCAA Championships and extended Hopkins' lead over Yale.
"The team swam better and better as the meet went on -- people stepped up and swam well at night and got the cuts they needed," said Harris. "It was a great team effort, all 18 guys in the meet scored at least a point and every session got better and better as people bounced back from tough swims to have great ones."
For both the men and women, the final meet of the season will be the 2006 NCAA Championships. Carleton College is hosting the event at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center on Mar. 9-11 for the women and Mar. 16-8 for the men.
scoring more needed points for the Blue Jays.
"This weekend we used the momentum of several lifetime best times to win the meet," Sean Kim said. "Some of the highlights were Colin Kleinguetl's mile and Ryan Kim's 100-yard backstroke. True teamwork was shown when our 200-yard freestylers stepped it up in order to qualify our 800-yard freestyle relay."
Kleinguetl won the 1650-yard freestyle in a time of 15:57.21, 29 seconds better than his previous best time. The time was also good for an NCAA provisional qualification time. Qualification times will be announced Mar. 2 by the NCAA.
Ryan Kim also scored points in the 200-yard backstroke. He finished third with a time of 1:50.92, which qualified him for the NCAA Championships and extended Hopkins' lead over Yale.
"The team swam better and better as the meet went on -- people stepped up and swam well at night and got the cuts they needed," Harris said. "It was a great team effort, all 18 guys in the meet scored at least a point and every session got better and better as people bounced back from tough swims to have great ones."
For both the men and women, the final meet of the season will be the 2006 NCAA Championships. Carleton College is hosting the event at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center from Mar. 9-11 for the women and Mar. 16-8 for the men.
