With the CCIW Championships less than a month away, both NCC Swimming and Diving teams are looking to turn around a rough start to their season. The men’s and women’s programs are both without head coaches this season.
Coaches cleared out
After the 2018-2019 season four-year head coach, Mark Schmitt, stepped down from the head coaching spot of the men and was replaced by Kurt Woodward. Woodward served as the head coach for the past two seasons.
Due to another job opportunity, he left a void in the head coaching role. During the 2021-2022 season the team has been operating without a head coach. To fill that gap, grad assistant Grace Miller and other NCC swimming alumni have stepped in to help out the team. “They have gone above and beyond helping [the team]finish the season strong,” said Ben Laurich ‘23. One meet even saw parents step in and act as interim coaches.
For the women’s program, former head coach Jenny Garrison left the program in December of last year and joined Texas Christian University as the head women’s triathlon coach.
Garrison is a former professional triathlete who has more than 15 years of competitive experience under her belt. She also represented Team USA in international competitions in four different countries. Garrison helped bring three consecutive USA Triathlon Division III National Championships to Naperville and was also named the Division III Coach of the Year in 2019.
“[Garrison’s] absence made us recognize that there have been some struggles without her. There’s still motivation to finish my senior season off strong, but it’s been tough,” said Amelia Woods ‘22.
Wood also noted that two seniors quit the women’s program because Garrison left for Fort Worth.
Invitationals so far
The men’s team opened up their 2021-2022 season back on Halloween at the Illinois Wesleyan Halloween Invitational where the team ended up finishing in last place with 35 points. Millikin University finished in second with 62 points and Illinois Wesleyan finished in first with 148 points. The next meet that the team competed in was the Beloit Quad Meet that took place on Nov. 20. The 200-yard medley relay team of Laurich, Sarantis Stamatis ‘23, Gavin Sheehan ‘25 and Michael Davis ‘25 finished in second place with a time of 1:56.96.
On Dec. 4 the team was invited to swim at the Wheaton College Invitational. Once again the 200-yard medley relay team put up a strong performance as Maciej Sporna ‘24 stepped in for Davis. The relay team ended up finishing the event in last but despite the finish, they cut off roughly three seconds of their seed time. Out of the six teams in attendance at the meet, NCC finished in sixth place with 31 points.
Duals so far
The team traveled to Dubuque Iowa on Jan. 8 to take on Loras College in the team’s first dual meet of the season. One of the stand-out swimmers for the Cardinals at this meet was on the diving board. Nicholas Domschke ‘25 finished first with a score of 156.65 in the first diving event and he finished second with a score of 148.65 in the second diving event. Domschke also had the season’s best time of 1:02.15 in the 100-yard freestyle. Despite the good showing, the Cardinals fell by a score of 146-42.
The second dual meet of the season was against Carroll University on Jan. 15. The Cardinal’s top performer in this meet was Sheehan who finished the 200-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly in second place. Sporna also finished the 50-yard freestyle in third place beating his seed time by two seconds. NCC ended up losing the dual meet to the Pioneers by a score of 72-12.
For the women’s program, the team lost its most recent meet against Carroll University 72-12. The 400m medleys team of Emily Miehlke, Abigail Anderson ‘25, Scarlett Schuth and Amelia Woods finished in third place with a time of 4:53.75. Prior to facing Carroll University, NCC faced Loras College and lost, 131-34. In the 200-yard freestyle, the quartet of Miehlke, Anderson, Schuth and Taylin Lemke ‘25 came in second place with a time of 2:07.81.
COVID cancellations
The men and women both had to withdraw from a meet hosted by Illinois Institute of Technology on Jan. 22. The programs closed out the regular season at Millikin University on Jan. 29. The meet was highlighted by Anderson’s second-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke.
The CCIW Championship meets start on Feb. 17 at the Pleasant Prairie Rec Plex in Wisconsin. No announcement on the hiring of new head coaches has been made.
Co-authored by Tianna Farias
