After the national meet, the women's swim program needs another hand to show its success.
The Bulldog women captured their sixth consecutive national title at the March 8 to 11 meet in Indianapolis. The six titles is the most of any Div. II swimming program in the nation.
"It was just amazing," sophomore Emily Greenwood said. "It was so much fun. Everyone just had great swims and got behind each other. It was probably the most exciting meet I've swam in or watched."
The 'Dogs led after day one of the meet and never relinquished the top spot on the scoreboard. Head coach Mark Gole said he was hoping the team would jump out to an early lead.
"To be honest, that's what I wanted," Gole said. "I didn't want to have to go into day three going, 'Is this the day we're going to come back?' I didn't want to come back. I wanted to set everything up and win it outright."
For the sixth straight year, Drury University (Mo.) took home the second-place spot. The Panthers scored 505 points and finished 159 points behind the Bulldogs' 664 points. Gole said the victory was a kind of revenge for the team's dual meet loss to Drury in late January.
"We got killed by Drury in a dual meet," Gole said. "It wasn't even close. I looked at [Drury head coach Bryan Reynolds'] results prior to our meet, and you could just tell that he rested a few individuals to swim faster at that dual meet, and it compromised how they swam at nationals - and I don't agree with that. If you want to rest to beat us in a dual meet, that's fine. You can have your, 'Oh, we beat them in a dual meet.' You can tell that to your recruits. I don't care. We're the national champions."
Gole said the team had a major advantage at the meet because the team had the maximum 18 national qualifiers - seven more than second-place Drury. He said the team depth helped pave the way for the title.
"We only won two races, ... but we only had two events that we didn't have anybody in the top eight in," Gole said. "Out of 19 events, that's not bad."
Seventeen of the 18 swimmers at the meet were either all-Americans or honorable mention all-Americans. Sophomore Molly Polette, who took home six all-American awards, rose to the occasion at the national meet.
"It was probably one of the best swim meets of my career to date," Polette said. "I had personal best times for all of my swims. ... It was just a really exciting meet, and I did better than I thought I did."
One of the two races the women did win was the 800-yard freestyle relay. The Bulldogs had won the race at nationals the past six years but trailed by almost two seconds when Polette jumped in the pool. When Polette touched the wall, the 'Dogs were 0.02 ahead of Drury.
"When I pushed off the wall for the last 50, I was still a body length behind," Polette said. " ... The thing I was thinking about was the most was this is for my team. It's not about the individual, it's for the team. ... When my head came out of the water after I touched [the wall], my teammates were cheering, and I turned around and saw the scoreboard that we had won, and I was like, 'Wow, I actually did it.'"
After the meet, Gole was named Div. II women's swim coach of the year. Freshman Erika Anderson said Gole helped the team gain confidence to do well at nationals.
"With every single meet, we got more and more confidence because Mark [Gole] is an amazing coach - we couldn't have had a better coach," Anderson said. "So we knew with each meet that came that we were going to be so prepared for nationals."
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