Season Review: Men’s Swimming & Diving finishes season strong, sets stage for promising 2020-21 campaign

By Bud Denega 

ADA — Ohio Northern men's swimming and diving head coach Austin Veltman possess a list, which rests on the left side of his office desk. The list details the swimmers who logged a lifetime-best time at the 2020 Ohio Athletic Conference Championships. 

One thing is particular evident about that list — it isn't short. Nearly every swimmer in orange and black logged a lifetime-best time in one or more races at OACs. 

"It was an outstanding meet by the guys," Veltman said. "There were so many great races. They worked so hard this year, and I'm thrilled for them to achieve what they did. We approach each season with the goal of improving and getting faster. They did that and earned every bit of it."

Those fast swims resulted in a third-place finish at the OAC Championships. That marks the 19th straight season the Polar Bears finished inside the top three at the conference meet. 

The regular season featured a 5-3 overall record and a 3-1 mark in OAC competition. The Polar Bears' conference victories occurred at Wilmington, against Mount Union and at Baldwin Wallace. 

The conference championship meet saw eight Polar Bears log individual top-five finishes, two of which were All-OAC swims. ONU also boasted a quartet of top-three relay finishes. 

Sophomore Jeremy Adams (Ypsilanti, Mich./Ann Arbor Pioneer) swam a leg on three of the four relays, while also bringing home an individual All-OAC performance. He took second in the 100-yard breaststroke, clocking in at 55.65 in the preliminary race, which was the third-fastest time in ONU history. 

Freshman Caleb Cope (Fort Wayne, Ind./Homestead) — who swam a leg of the 800-yard freestyle relay — represented the other All-OAC honoree. He touched third in the 400-yard individual medley, registering a preliminary time of 4:08.51, which is also the third-best time in Northern history. 

Those two underclassmen are just a small sample size of the youth movement occurring in Ada. Only two seniors were on the 2019-20 roster this past season — Ryan Groehl (Marysville) and Nathan Donatelli (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) — and while both of those two's contributions were appreciated, the future is bright for the Polar Bears, as an abundance of talent returns next season. 

"I'm pumped for the future," Veltman said. "If you look at our relays, we have just about everybody coming back next year. We lose Ryan to graduation, but other than that they're all back. It's exciting because the foundation is there for the next two years."