Bruins Swim Team Wraps Up Second Season with Strong Finish
Reported by Jen Wright
The George Fox University (GFU) Swim Team wrapped up their second competitive season at the Northwest Conference Championships (NWCC) on Feb. 16 by improving on last year, with the women placing 6th and the men placing 8th overall.
During the four-day meet, the Bruins set 19 new school records, broke four American records, and took home two NWC titles. Junior Aspen Monkhouse won gold in the 50-yard Freestyle and Freshman Adin Williams broke his fifth S6 American record in the 100-yard Butterfly, his second in two days.
Williams has also been named to the U.S. Paralympic Swimming National Team, with the possibility of traveling to Tokyo in June to compete. Williams won five gold medals at the U.S. Paralympic Nationals in December.
With an influx of freshman recruits, the team was more excited during the swim season, Head Coach Natalie Turner said.
“I think what a lot of teams find when they get a big freshman class is that there’s just a lot of fun and excitement,” Turner said. “It’s been really good that they came in in the second year of the program, as we’re still developing, and they’re really setting up kind of a fun culture.”
Having spent a year competing together already, the rest of the team is more comfortable with each other. This made it easier for the new swimmers to assimilate, and made the whole season more enjoyable for everyone, including the coaches, Turner said.
“Just being able to start off with one group of swimmers who have had one year’s experience together, it really changed the beginning of the year,” Turner said. “They’re wanting to hang out together, eating together, being together outside of the pool before the season’s even started.”
The team’s second season didn’t only bring a closer dynamic, but also more talent and more speed.
The season’s largest margin of victory was against Pacific University in their first dual meet of the season, sweeping the competition and ending 286-74 overall.
After last year’s uncertainty in first-time college swim competition, the Bruins were able to confidently focus on getting good times and aiming for personal bests, Turner said.
“When a team does well as a whole, we get to celebrate the entire team, but we get to celebrate individual victories as well,” Turner said. “It really is a cool back-and-forth that we get to play on both the individual and the team aspect of the sport.”
Freshman Hunter Bartoo, Photo by George Fox University