Swimmers including freshman Jonah Rees (above) competed against themselves and the clock during this past Friday's through Sunday's races at the Liberty Natatorium.(Photos by Katelyn Foelsch)
Men’s swimmers push each other to new program records, national cuts at home meet
11/26/2024 4:51:00 PM | Men's Swimming
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Flames swimmers set six new team standards in various events and many others swam lifetime bests in this weekend's TYR Invite at the Liberty Natatorium.
Liberty University's men's swimming team broke six individual program records and several more lifetime bests as well as achieving College Club Swimming national qualifying cuts at its TYR Invite from Friday through Sunday at the Liberty University Natatorium. The event was held simultaneously with the Lady Flames' five-team NCAA Division I meet.
The Flames competed only against themselves, which is often their best competition, and excelled in the home environment after tapering their training workouts specifically to swim fast times at the fall semester-ending meet.
"As the years have gone on, with better recruiting, we've now gotten to the place where some of the best people at nationals are in the lane next to them (teammates), so we might as well swim against them," Liberty Head Coach Heath Grishaw said. "That's the best way to prepare."
New program standards for the team that started in 2017 were set in the 200 breaststroke, the 100 and 200 butterfly, the 200 and 400 individual medley, and the 1,650 freestyle. No relays were swum over the weekend, except among the women's teams in the NCAA meet won by the Lady Flames.
"We're thankful that (Liberty Women's Swimming & Diving Head Coach) Jake (Shellenberger) and (Associate Head Coach) Jess (Barnes) allowed us to piggyback off of this meet," Grishaw said. "It saved us money and allowed us to still swim fast at a prelims-finals meet. That's a huge shout out to the coaching staff and the support we have here at Liberty and with Athletics. At the same time, I think if it was just our guys here, we would have had the same results because it really came down to who wanted it more and who wanted to punch a ticket to nationals."
Now, nearly the entire team has met the qualifying standards to compete at the CCS National Championships, set for March 28-30 in Mesa, Ariz. New national cuts were met by juniors Alex Sandoval and Jeffrey Serle, sophomore Nolan Jampole, and freshman Aaron Hall.
"I can't tell you how many lifetime personal bests were set by guys this week, breaking times they haven't swam in two years," Grishaw said. "They always say if there's a lane, there's an opportunity, and that's what happened this weekend. It was very cool. Guys really crushed it. They showed up, swam, and it didn't matter who was next to them."
Freshman Xander Williams broke the longest-standing record, Noah Miller's 200 fly mark, in 1 minute, 51.39 seconds, as well as breaking senior Jonah Rhodenizer's 100 fly record set this fall with a new fast time of 50.76. Freshman Jonah Rees broke the second-oldest record on the team in the 400 IM, held by Robert Boehme, with Rees finishing in 4:05.10. Sophomore Thomas Hill shaved more than five seconds off of Boehme's program mark in the 1,650 free with his time of 16:13.30.
Junior Dillon Delaney established a new 200 breast record (2:06.91) that had been set this semester by freshman Malachi Caballero, who in turn broke Delaney's 200 IM program record on Friday night in 1:53.58.
"I've been getting second all the years I've been swimming, so the goal is to not get second this year," said Delaney, who cut his toe on the side of the touch pad on a flip turn Friday, requiring three stitches but not slowing him down a bit.
Delaney also won the 100 breast in 56.19 and placed fifth in the 200 IM. Other event winners for the Flames were Hill (500 yard free, 4:35.25), junior Maximus Phillipps (50 free, 20.66), sophomore Whittman Brown (200 free, 1:39.65), and graduate Matt Davidson (100 backstroke, 49.86; 100 free, 45.04).
"Guys were breaking each other's times and records, but they were also congratulating them because at the end of the day we need everyone to do what we want to do in March," Grishaw said, referring to the national meet over Spring Break. "We got to show that you don't need to have an NCAA title and scholarships to go fast. You need a good team culture, coaches that care and love you, and teammates that are going to push you, and that's what we have here at Liberty."
"Everyone was cheering each other on the whole time," added former Flames swimmer and new Assistant Coach Jordan Stackpole ('23). "It's been awesome to see the team grow into what it is today."
Stackpole recently replaced second-year Assistant Coach James Anderssen, who moved back to Wisconsin this month after working primarily with Liberty's distance freestyle and IM swimmers for the past 15 months. Stackpole and Grishaw are poised to push the Flames to continue in their passionate pursuit of a first CCS National Championship.
Liberty will next travel to the Wet Wahoo Invitational at the University of Virginia in late February, only a month before the TYR CCS National Championships, where the Flames plan to race against themselves as much as the best of the rest that the nation has to offer.
"Racing against the clock, that's what we always do," Grishaw said. "We're going to focus on rest this week and then when we come back, we're going to attack the practices we have before us and we're going to continue to maintain through (Winter) Break and then bring on Spring."
"We'll be training all through Christmas Break," Delaney added.
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer Flames freshman Xander Williams set new program records in the 100- and 200-yard butterfly events in this past weekend's TYR Invite.
