The Hamline University Swim team season ended on Saturday Feb. 17 when the team competed in the final day of the three day MIAC Championship meet at the University of Minnesota.

At the meet the Men’s team took 6th place and the Women’s took 8th. While the teams were not able to get higher placements than last year the swim team Head Coach Ryan Hawke felt they still met their goals. “Last year we were in the same spots, but the gap between us and fifth was huge, this year we really closed that gap.”

This gap closing helped get  Hawke recieve recieve the MIAC Coach of the Year Award. The placements are made more impressive when seeing that it is a Swim and Dive championship and the Hamline team does not have any divers.

Despite this improvement Hawke still hopes that they can do better. “As a coach you always look for more. And we did meet a lot of our goals this year but I’m hoping that we can be a contender for the top five in the future and move up in the conference.”

Going beyond their success at the Championship meet the team did well when it came to breaking records. Over the course of the year five school records were broken. Hamline jJjunior Taylor Martinek broke both the 100 and 200 backstroke records, the 200 having been set in the 70s. Hamline Ssesenior Hodd Gorman broke the 200 and 500 freestyle records. And Hamline fFfirst-y Y-year Andy Hobar broke the 100 breaststroke record. Hobar described breaking the record saying “It felt nice. When I looked up and saw my time it didn’t set in right away but when it did, it really felt nice.”

The Swim season saw the team compete in 13 meets and even have a trip to Hawaii. Junior Gabe Mcgee commented on the trip saying,, “ It was 11 days, and the majority of it was training, Even during free time we’d be down at the beach or going for a hike.”

Even though the season lasted 13 meets the overall rating is not decided until the championship meet at the end of the year.

Hobar said, “The season is a lot longer, which can get tiring but it’s also nice to have consistent coaching with a staff that communicates and are looking for the same things from the swimmers. That is something I didn’t have in high school.”

First-year Ben Anderson also agreed with Hobar’s statement.

“I didn’t have a high school swim team I was part of a rec league and I really like having this set up.,” said Anderson.

Even though the long season is over the team isn’t taking a break. “We got Sunday off but then on Monday we were right back in the weight room and running on the track,” said Mcgee. “Next year we aren’t losing a ton of seniors but we still have a lot of freshmen so as long as we can keep them we’ll be just fine.” When asked about what goals he had for next year Mcgee said, “I’d like to break into the top five. But really we just need to swim faster.”