The Emory University Men's Swimming and Diving team, coming off a storybook season capturing the program's first-ever national championship, opens the 2017-18 season this Wednesday afternoon against the University of Georgia at the Madeleine Jude Brown Aquatic Center, starting at 4:00 PM.
The meet versus the Bulldogs will consist of primarily relay events featuring 200 Medley, 500 Free, 300 Fly, 300 Back, 200 Free, 300 Breast and the 400 Free. The meet will be streamed live on emoryathletics.com.
Returners
The Eagles return 25 letterwinners for the 2017-18 season including 10 All-Americans and six national champions. All-American returnees include Henry Copses, Thomas Gordon, Alexander Hardwick, Alex Kohlman, Trey Kolleck, Sage Ono, Matt Rogers, Aaron Schwartz, Oliver Smith and Cooper Tollen.
In addition, Smith will try for the individual three-peat in the 50 Freestyle as will all four members of the two-time defending champion 200 Freestyle Relay team: Hardwick, Kolleck, Schwartz and Smith.
Newcomers
Emory welcomes a group of seven newcomers to the roster for the upcoming year, six swimmers and one diver: Daniel Coleman (St. Petersburg, FL / South Mecklenburg), Connor Duggan (Auburn, AL / Auburn), Yuhan Liu (Singapore / Shanghai American School), Sven Mesihovic (Suwanee, GA / Lambert), Carlos Monteagudo (Sugarland, TX / William B. Travis), Kellen Stillman (Charlotte, NC / South Mecklenburg) and Luke Young (Santa Monica, CA / Crossroads School).
Coaching Staff
Jon Howell returns for his 20th year as head coach of the Eagles. During his first 19 seasons at the helm, Howell has guided the Emory men to a sixth place finish or better at the NCAA Championships every year including 15 top-three showings and has won the University Athletic Association title each season. Howell is assisted by long time members of his staff Cindy Fontana, Chris Marshall, John Petroff and Alex Kossenkov.
2017-18 Schedule
The Eagles open with the UGA Relay meet and a diving competition in Moultrie, GA this week before the annual Blue-Gold Intrasquad meet next Friday, October 6th. Emory then faces Queens University (Oct. 14), Birmingham-Southern (Oct. 21), Wingate, Catawba and Georgia Southern (Nov. 3-4) before closing out the calendar year with the Miami and SCAD Invitationals November 30th – December 2nd.
The Eagles begin the 2018 year at Florida Southern on January 12th and the Arena Pro Swim Series in Austin on January 20th before swimming against West Florida and Delta State (Jan. 20), Georgia Tech (Jan. 27) and another meeting versus the University of Georgia on February 3rd before the championship portion of the schedule.
Emory will play host for UAA Championships this season from February 14th-17th as the Eagles try for their 20th consecutive conference championship. After the UAA Championships, the Eagles travel to Charlotte for the Queens College Invitational for the final tune up before the NCAA Championships. The 2018 edition of the NCAA Division III Championships are set for March 21st-24th in Indianapolis, IN.