The men’s and women’s swim team at Virginia Wesleyan participated in the ODAC tournament from Feb. 15 to Feb. 17. As a team, the women finished in tenth place while the men finished in ninth.
Many school records were shattered during ODACs in the swim program’s second year of competition.
For the women’s program, senior Hayley Heath set new records in the 100 butterfly and 200 individual medley. She would then team up with junior Amanda Waller, sophomore Miah Kurtz and freshman Jordan McCowan in the 200 freestyle to top another school record. Waller also tops the 500 freestyle for the school.
Junior swimmer Cherhon Davis-Pearson set personal bests of her own in the 50 freestyle and the 100 freestyle.
“Our boys and girls team both beat several school records, dropped time to set their own personal best records and maintained amazing sportsmanship during ODACs. I think we’re all guilty of probably not warming up or warming down enough. But it was a three-day event that started in the morning and didn’t end until 8 at night so we were all understandably tired,” Davis-Pearson said.
Although there are some upperclassmen on the team who have been to the tournament before, there are also some underclassmen who made the trip for the first time this year. Freshman Shayna Anthony is among one of these swimmers.
“It was exciting for me, but it was also really intense. I was super nervous because I had never competed in anything as big as ODACs before. Overall, I enjoyed my time there and it was a great learning experience. I grew closer with my team and I’m excited for next year,” Anthony said.
For the men’s swim team, multiple records were broken as well. Freshman Tyler Strong broke the school record in the 200 backstroke. Junior Kyle Woolf also got his name in the record books as he set the new high in the 100 breaststroke.
The team of Woolf, Strong, freshman Grant Morgan and freshman Max Currens topped the program record in the 200 medley.
Woolf, the team captain on the men’s side, topped another record when he teamed up with Currens, Strong, and junior Patrick McKneely in the 400 freestyle.
“Overall, the whole team just worked really hard and I couldn’t be more proud of them, and we broke pretty much all of our records,” Woolf said.
Joshua Gray
jagray@vwu.edu
Megan Sherman
mrsherman@vwu.edu
