Colorado College Swimming & Diving
Block 5 Newsletter Alumni Edition
A note from Anne
Dear Colorado College Swimming and Diving Alumni,
It is that time of year when we want to catch you up on another exciting season. One of the awesome things this year was how many of you, our alumni, we saw around the country. When we traveled to Chicago, it was great to share that time with Emma Holmes, Tom Grossinger, Erik Laitos and Jordan DeGayner. It was special to be surprised by Matt Nadel, Erik Laitos, and Chris Garrity at Champs, who flew into Texas from all over the country! Grant Rice was there to support our team at the last chance meet in North Carolina, and stopped by to talk with the team earlier in the year at CC. We loved having the many of you who came to Homecoming and made that a special day here at CC. Austin Howlett, Matt Nadel, Garrett Cry, Brenna Day, Brian Kopec, Katy Martinez, Emily Houghton, Emma Holmes, Kelsey Smith, Audrey Eldridge, Erik Laitos, Lizzie Weirich, Morgan McBride, Mike Bennett, Carey Colbert, Chris Garrity, Molly Brown, and Kaleb Roush all competed in the alumni/varsity meet (and still are impressive in the pool!) Thanks also to those who came to many of our home meets. One other alumni note: Chris Garrity ’15 will be joining us as an assistant coach next season.
Please know that all of you remain an important part of our Big Cat family! It means so much to me and to our team to have you demonstrate how important CC Swimming and Diving was during your college years, and continues to be in your life.
Anne
The Tigers Shine at SCAC Championships
To close out our regular season, The Big Cats journeyed to Lewisville, Texas for SCAC Championships. The meet was held at the recently built Lewisville Westside Aquatic Center. The pristine venue set the tone for a week of great competition. The Tigers had an exceptionally strong showing with the Women's team taking 2nd overall and the Men's team 4th. The totals from the weekend for our program:
- 108 lifetime best performances.
- School records were broken 10 times in 8 events, including breaking the longest standing record on our board. The women's 50 free record of of 23.54 was set by Olivia Dilorati, breaking the 23.94 held for ten years by Taylor Jaramillo.
- 4 individual conference champions (including Olivia Dilorati in the 50 free and 100 fly, Megan Gillespie in the 400 IM, and Ellen Silk in the 200 fly.)
- 4 relay conference champions. CC's women won 4 of the 5 relays at the championships.
- SCAC records were established by Olivia Dilorati in the 100 butterfly, and the team of Dilorati, Gillespie, Silk and Zuckerman in the 200 medley relay.
- 8 NCAA qualifying standards were met (6 swimming and 2 diving).
Check out the video slideshow from the meet below. If you notice our swimmers and divers wearing unique clothing in the travel shots, its part of our "Dress for Success" tradition. For over 20 years, our athletes have worn amusing outfits (many of which have been passed down over time) en route to the Championship meet. Its just another thing we do that makes us unique.
Charlotte Last Chance Meet
Below is the video from the weekend. It is on the longer side but it features pictures from the trip and also some of the motivational materials we used heading into each day. Enjoy!