Brian Schnee
Equinox Staff
It’s not every day the Keene State College community can witness All-American athletic greatness. However, imagine seven athletes coming home from the most prestigious swimming race of their young lives with hardware to show their talents.
All seven KSC men’s swimmers made it back to New Hampshire from the NCAA Division III National Championships in Shenandoah, Texas, with All-America status. Owls Head Coach Jack Fabian said that the team set goals going into the meet to score points and compete at a high level. “We thought, if we do a couple of things right we could get close to 100 points and be in the mix for top ten,” Fabian said. “The guys were engaged in that goal from the flight down. It was total focus.”
KSC finished the four-day meet tied for eleventh place and by scoring 109 points. “We were six points short of top ten but we did get over 100 points,” Fabian said. “When I told the guys, I was like ‘Damn it, we didn’t make top ten.’ They were like ‘Coach, we’re over 100 points–that was our goal.’”
The Owls had solid individual performances in addition to stellar team relay times. Overall, the Owls produced 11 All-Americans at the national meet, according to Keene State College Sports Information.
Junior Drew Ledwith had the top individual finish out of the Owls swimmers by placing second in the 1,650 race and coming up just short of Denison Universities’ Alan Weik for the second year in a row. “I think I rested a little too long which kind of helps your speed,” Ledwith said in regards to his 1,650 race. “But for the mile it’s hard because you need endurance too.”
“It’s about balancing both of them (speed and endurance) because you want to go fast but you also want to stay in shape,” Ledwith said.
Ledwith also placed fourth in the 500 free and was a member of the Owls’ fourth place 800 free relay. After tallying three All-American accolades, he now has six All-American titles under his belt with senior year still awaiting him.
A newer face to the Owls program came into Keene just a few months ago and has already found himself as All-American. Freshman Shahar Resman placed eight in the 1,650 and swam a leg on the 800 free relay team.
“When I came here I had my goals, one being going to the national championship,” Resman said. “But for me, my goals are much bigger. This is just one step.”
“I expect to get better and do really well like him [Ledwith],” Resman said. “He can teach me a lot of positive things.”
“Shahar works really hard in practice and fits in with this program really well,” Ledwith said. “He will really help us next year because we will have a whole year to train together. It’s a lot easier having someone to work with.”
Coach Fabian was impressed with how well his swimmers did not only focusing on their individual events, but also on the team aspect of it. “Everyone does their job individually but they’re really focused on competing as a group and that’s one of our strengths,” Fabian said. “They’re real comfortable working together as a team.”
The All-American relay team members consisted of senior Austin Harris who swam the 200 free along with Juniors Jared Hyde and James Black and freshman Greg Youngstrom. Hyde also swam the 800 free with Resman, Ledwith and freshman Cole Hogg.
“Each year we’ve been progressing,” Ledwith said. “This year we finally put it together. We had a lot of guys down there [NCAAs] and everyone placed All-American.”
Brian Schnee can be contacted at
bschnee@keene-equinox.com
