The Asbury swim team is currently at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, IN, competing in its second most important meet of the regular season. This midseason meet starts on Friday, Nov. 19, and goes until Sunday, Nov. 21.
For both the men’s and women’s teams, the midseason meet is a chance to compete against more and better schools than in the past since they are transitioning into NCAA Division III this year. The women’s team holds a record of 4-2 while the men’s team holds a record of 2-3.
“Midseason is less about results and more about a benchmark to see where we can be at conference,” said sophomore Ian Wang.
Now that the swimming season is reaching its midpoint and both teams are starting to compete in meets with higher stakes, Asbury’s swimmers are more excited than ever. Sophomore Charlie Cox is excited to swim against competing teams better than teams they have swum against in the past.
“We’re going to have some really great competition,” said Cox. “We definitely started not exactly sure what the change to Division III was going to look like because [of the] shorter training, but we’re kind of excited to jump into it.”
For Wang, this season looks significantly different than his freshman season due mostly to the DIII transition. Still, he has set ambitious goals.
“Right now, I’m shooting for the 100m breast record,” said Wang, “Just objectively, my times are better, and so there’s been a lot of stress that I’ve placed on myself.”
Despite the stress and the fatigue the swim team faced at the start of the season with early morning practices, the team has found creative ways to stay positive and have fun, including hosting a team roast.
“We definitely take every hit with a grain of salt,” said Wang, “We definitely powder everything up with a lot of comedy and humor.”
Along with this new transition to DIII, the team is still adjusting to fewer COVID-19 protocols.
“[The team dynamic] changes every year, and getting used to not being in COVID protocols is different but good,” said Cox, “We’re just working out what our sport looks like now, especially since we have much more freedom.”