Men's Swimming Championship Preview

Posted: Feb 15, 2023

The 29th annual Centennial Conference women's swimming championship begins Thursday night at Gettysburg's Bullets Pool in Gettysburg, Pa. The four-day event opens with the 200 medley relay and 800 freestyle relay on Thursday night at 7 p.m., with action continuing through Sunday. The Friday through Sunday schedule will feature prelims at 10 a.m. each morning followed by final at 6 p.m. inside Bullets Pool.

Defending champion Swarthmore is the favorite to repeat after a perfect 6-0 record in Centennial dual meets that featured each win coming back at least 50 points. The Garnet, who secured their third CC title in the last five meets in 2022, are ranked No. 25 in the latest College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) national poll. F&M, which finished in second place in 2022 after winning the team title in 2020, went 5-1 in CC dual competition. Ursinus (4-2) also posted a winning dual mark this winter and will aim to challenge the Garnet and Diplomats for supremacy this weekend.

Gettysburg holds the most conference titles (15) in CC history, followed by F&M (9) and Swarthmore (3). Those three squads have combined for each Centennial title since the championship began in 1994.

Four individual champions are back for this year's championship, including two looking to defend titles in multiple events. Swarthmore's Andrew Karpenko headlines the list of returners as the reigning Most Outstanding Peformer and Most Oustanding Rookie of the championship. He became the third men's swimmer in Centennial history to win both major awards in the same season, winning all three of his individual events (200 IM, 100 breaststroke, 200 breaststroke) in impressive fashion, breaking conference, championship meet and F&M pool records in each event.

Gettysburg's Nick Cox is the two-time returning champion in the 100 backstroke and also the returning champ in the 200 backstroke. Swarthmore's Ben Freeman will aim for repeat gold in the 500 freestyle, while F&M's Willem Stoll is the other individual title-holder back at the championships. Stoll was the 1650 freestyle champion back in 2020, but will not compete in that event this weekend.

Karpenko remains the conference and championship meet record holder in the 100 breastroke (54.12), 200 breaststroke (2:00.61) and 200 IM (CC-1:49.12; Meet-1:49.18), while Cox owns the championship meet record in the 200 back (1:48.62), which he set in 2022.