2013-14 Emory Men’s Swimming & Diving Season Recap

The Emory University Men’s Swimming and Diving Team won the National Championship in the 200-yard medley relay and 400-yard medley relay, and senior Ross Spock claimed an individual title in the 100-yard backstroke, as the Eagles highlighted their 2013-14 campaign with a third-place finish at the NCAA Division III Championships.

The Eagles recorded 246.5 points at the NCAA Championships to record the 13^th top-three national finish in the program’s history, and edge fourth-place Johns Hopkins University (245 points) and the fifth-place Massachusetts Institute of Technology (236 points).  Kenyon College won the meet with 480 points, while Denison University finished second with 472 points.

The three National Championships won by the Eagles at the meet were the most ever at a single NCAA Championship by an Emory squad.  Emory swimmers combined for All-America finishes in six individual events and three relays, while collecting two individual and relay All-America Honorable Mention finishes, each.  Emory swimmers set school records in five individual events and two relays during the meet.

Spock turned in a historic performance at the meet, swimming the backstroke leg on both of Emory’s National Championship medley relays in addition to his individual title in the 100-yard backstroke.  He set school records in all three events, teaming with sophomore Andrew Wilson, senior Jake Stephens and senior Ryan Bass to win the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:28.16, and Wilson, junior Hayden Baker and Bass to win the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:15.13 (just four-hundredths of a second off the national record time).  Spock also finished in a dead-heat with Samuel Gill of Connecticut College with a time of 47.62 seconds to win the 100-yard backstroke, just six-hundredths of a second off the national record mark.

Spock added individual all-America honors with a second-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle (20.15 seconds) and a sixth-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke (1:47.34), setting school records in each.  He was a part of the Eagles’ second-place 200-yard freestyle relay as well, along with Stephens, sophomore Matt Kuhlik and Bass, giving Spock his sixth all-America honor of the meet, and program-record 21^st of his career.

Wilson added three individual all-America finishes during the meet, finishing second with school record times in both the 100-yard breaststroke (54.26 seconds) and 200-yard breaststroke (1:58.54), and claiming fifth in the 200-yard individual medley.  Bass claimed three all-America finishes during the meet to finish his career with 12 certificates, while Stephens recorded a pair, ending his time as an Eagle with 10.

The 2014 University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships proved to be the closest in the conference’s history, with the Eagles edging the University of Chicago by just 3.5 points to win their 16^th-consecutive UAA title.  The competitiveness of the meet was aided partially by a change in the format, made necessary when an uncharacteristic ice storm hit Atlanta the same week Emory was slated to host the championships.  With travel into the region hampered, five teams (Emory, Washington University (Mo.), Carnegie Mellon University, New York University and Brandeis University) took part in a condensed two-day meet in Atlanta on February 14^th and 15^th, while the remaining three squads (Case Western Reserve University, Chicago and the University of Rochester) traveled to Cleveland for a satellite meet on February 15^th and 16^th.  The results of the two meets were combined to determine individual and team conference champions.

Emory swimmers went on to claim UAA Championships in three individual events and four relays, en route to winning the team championship.  Spock (49.38 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke) and freshman Mitchell Cooper (3:59.54 in the preliminaries of the 400-yard individual medley) each set new conference meet records, while Emory also set UAA meet-record marks with victories in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:21.91), 200-yard medley relay (1:29.70) and 400-yard medley relay (3:18.18).  Bass claimed the UAA Championship in the 50-yard freestyle for the fourth-consecutive year, becoming just the second swimmer in Emory history (along with Fred Schreiber in the 100-yard backstroke from 1998-2001) to win the same event at the conference championships for four-straight seasons.

The Eagles combined for 11 individual all-UAA finishes and claimed all-conference honors in all five relays at the 2014 UAA Championships.

Emory finished the dual meet season with a 3-5 record, with wins coming against Birmingham-Southern College, the Savannah College of Art & Design and the University of the South.  Three of the Eagles’ losses came in meets against Division I major-conference opponents in the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech and the University of Alabama.  In other championship-style scored meets, the Eagles finished fourth out of six teams at the Miami Invitational, and won the eight-team Midwest Invitational.

In addition to their accolades in the pool, a number of Eagles were recognized for their academic success as well.  Stephens and senior Matt O’Brien each received a prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, while O’Brien and Wilson were named to the Capital One Academic All-District Team.

The Eagles earned the following honors during the 2013-14 season:

The following were the top times by Emory swimmers during the 2013-14 season:

*E – Indicates Emory Record