Everybody back in the pool! MC has first swim team since ‘82

Release Date: November 2, 2004

MONMOUTH, Ill. — Monmouth College’s Keith Crawford hopes he can preside over the new “golden era” of Fighting Scots swimming.

The last one occurred in the late 1960s, when swimmers like Andy Bastman and David Lloyd not only set school records but also established the best-ever marks at that time in the history of the Midwest Conference. Bastman and Lloyd led the Scots to a second-place finish in the MWC in 1968 and a third-place showing in 1969.

Monmouth will make its return to NCAA swimming this Saturday at a dual meet at the University of Chicago. It will be the Scots’ first competition in the pool since 1982.

“I’m anxious to get ready and go out and swim that first meet,” said Crawford, who feels he has a few men’s swimmers who can challenge the existing MC records, many of which are owned by Bastman or Lloyd.

“Quite a few of them are still pretty respectable after all these years,” noted Crawford, referring specifically to Bastman’s times of 49.9 in the 100-yard freestyle and 2:05.9 in the 200-yard IM and Lloyd’s 2:08.1 clocking in the 200-yard backstroke. “But I expect a few of the men’s records to fall in our first meet.”

On the women’s side, every member of the team is capable of establishing a new mark, as women’s swimming was never a varsity sport at Monmouth despite the fact that some women did compete. In all, the Scots’ first-ever women’s swim team will have 15 members, and the men’s squad will feature six.

Of the six, Crawford feels that Erik Hoffer, a state qualifier in the 500-yard freestyle in high school, will be the team’s leader.
“He should be a contender for a conference championship in the 400-yard IM and the 1650-yard freestyle,” said Crawford.

Other major contributors to the team will be Brandon Sahlhoff (100- and 200-yard butterfly, 200-yard IM) and Dan Campione, who Crawford says “should be really strong in the backstroke.

“We don’t have much of a chance of hanging with the men’s swimming powers in our conference – Grinnell, Lawrence and Lake Forest,” added Crawford. “But we could have a close meet with Ripon for fourth.”

While the conference meet is run as an invitational, with 12 competitors scoring in each event, Crawford said that dual meets will present a problem for the men’s team this year.

“In most dual meets, we’ll just run out of bodies,” he said, referring to the rule that swimmers can only compete in three events.

That won’t be the case on the women’s team, and Crawford is looking for freshmen Allie Aagesen, Lynn Lanier and Stephanie Chun to make big contributions. Aagesen, the starting goalkeeper on the women’s soccer team, could swim national provisional qualifying times if she can return to form in the 200-yard backstroke, while Chun excels in several strokes.

Shana Smith, Megan Wentzlaff and distance swimmers Jessica DeMink and Cassandra Quast should all be solid, and Crawford is plased to have one diver, Nichole Hoffmeister, on the squad.

“Nicki should do fairly well,” said Crawford. “In high school, she almost qualified for the Wisconsin state meet.”

In terms of the conference meet, Crawford says Grinnell, Lawrence and St. Norbert are the favorites. With a perfect meet full of personal bests, the Scots could rise as high as third, but with their first-ever team, he realizes a fifth-place, middle of the pack finish would still be something on which to build.

Referring to both teams, Crawford said, “Every time we go out there is an opportunity. We might lose the meet and lose it pretty handily. But if I can sit down after the meet to look at our performances and see lots of improvements, I’ll be pretty happy.”

Rounding out the list of swimmers for the college this year are Ryan Bouwman, Brian Kura, Robert Spearing, Kimberly Brassfield, Ashley Freeman, Blair Glowacki, Erin Jole, Inna Lonchyna, Angela Lullo and Sara Tuttle.

Crawford, who also serves as the facilities director at the new Huff Athletic Center, is a 2001 graduate of Xavier University, where he ran track and cross country for all four years. He served as the assistant men’s and women’s swimming coach and the assistant director of intramurals at DePauw University from 2001-03. DePauw’s swim teams won the men’s and women’s Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference titles in 2003, and Crawford worked with a total of seven All-American swimmers.

The Scots’ schedule includes a big invitational meet Dec. 3-4 at DePauw, as well as the MWC Championships Feb. 11-13. In between will be a nine-day training trip to Florida during Christmas break. Another highlight will be the Scots’ first event at the beautiful new Pepper Natatorium in the Huff Athletic Center on Jan. 13.

Men's Swim Team  |  Women's Swim Team