Men’s Swimming Wins Invitational for Second Straight Year
Sam Nonemaker (Photo courtesy of Gettysburg College)
By Garrett Glaeser, Staff Writer
The Men’s Swimming team continued their undefeated season by taking down Mary Washington University this past Saturday 158-104 at the Bullets Pool.
Duncan Proxmire ’21 and Sam Nonemaker ’22 led the team with two individual wins each in the team’s first events since returning from their winter break trip to Barbados.
Proxmire, a long distance specialist, won the 500 and 1000 Freestyle, beating out fellow teammates Ernie Ribera and CJ Hewitt, who placed second and third respectively.
Nonemaker, the other top performer, won the 200 Freestyle, 50 Freestyle, and was the closer on the 400 Freestyle Relay winning group with Danny Petrillo ’21, Parker Sorenson ’19, and Aedan Collins ’21, who won the 100 Fly.
Other winners included Jack Freeman ’21 and Oliver Pickering ’22 who won in the 100 Back and 200 Butterfly respectively.
This win marked the Bullet’s second over Mary Washington University this year, with the last coming back in December at the Gettysburg Invitational, when the Bullets posted a score of 1105, and beat Mary Washington by 282, Dickinson by 500, and Susquehanna by 580.
Building off the team’s success in the fall semester, the Bullets enter the spring with a similar mentality of pushing each other in practice and working hard independently in the weight room on strength and conditioning.
“You have to shake the rust off a little bit,” said Nonemaker who commented on the intense training sessions in Barbados after a shortened winter break.
According to Nonemaker, the Barbados trip was a relaxing time and great for team bonding, but was also filled with intense four-hour long training sessions. The long time in the pool was eased by friendly competition between teammates in preparation to return to conference meets.
He also added that spending time with the women’s swimming team, made the time out of the pool more enjoyable since the two teams are quite close with one another. Back in Gettysburg, they practice daily together and have nearly identical meet schedules.
The Bullets, who now sit at 6-0 overall and 3-0 in conference, look to stay on track to repeat as champions of the Centennial Conference with four meets remaining before the championship begins on February 21.
“We’d be disappointed with anything but winning the championship,” said Nonemaker who spoke of the expectation the team has placed on themselves to continue their winning streak the rest of the year.
Of their remaining opponents, Nonemaker said that the toughest competition would be Swarthmore, second place finishers last year, and conference champions in 2017. The Garnet currently sit at 6-1 overall and 4-0 in conference, their only loss coming to #4 Johns Hopkins on January 19.
Nonemaker continued to mention that the Bullets’ last two opponents, Dickinson (7-2, 2-1) and Franklin & Marshall (6-4, 2-2), shouldn’t be too difficult to beat in preparation for the championship races.
The final event on the schedule before championship swimming begins is the Franklin & Marshall Invitational on February 9-10, an opportunity to compete in a playoff-like atmosphere before returning to Bullets Pool for the championship.
