By Joseph Keyser
WEBSTER, N.Y.—Empire 8 championships proved to be a successful meet for Brockport swimming and diving with the men placing fourth and women placing third. The team’s success went beyond expectations as seven school records were broken.
“It’s been a long time coming for us,” Brockport head coach Zack Wahl said. “I’m just so proud of the group that we’ve really grown into here. This is a testament to them and the hard work they put into everything.”
The team attributes the success to something more than the hard work in the pool, though.
“We got along, not just as swimmers, but we became friends outside of swimming, where we genuinely enjoyed spending time with one another,” Senior Elizabeth Sagan said. “I think that is really what builds a team’s success, when you just genuinely grow to love one another and you with the best for one another.”
“In such a grueling, difficult sport with such a long season, it really helps make it a little bit better every day, when you go in with a smile and try and enjoy each and every day with your teammates,” Wahl said.
The tight-knit nature of the 2024-25 Golden Eagles swimming and diving team showed throughout the meet. Teammates were at the end of the pool cheering each other on and celebrating when races finished.
Senior Luca Olivieri broke the 400-yard individual medley (IM) record.
“Luca’s been eyeing that record since his sophomore year,” Wahl said. “So that was awesome to have him get it in his last shot, to get his name up on that record board again.”
Freshman Erik Parkes broke the 100-yard and 200-yard butterfly records.
“It’s not just a me record, it’s a whole team record,” Parkes said. “We’ve been grinding since day one. We’ve been pushing each other all season.”
Senior Sarah Kilburn broke the 100-yard butterfly record.
Sagan broke the 100-yard freestyle record.
On top of the individual records that fell, two relay records were broken. The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Parkes, Junior Garrett Nanna, Freshman Carter Lundin and Olivieri put their names in the record books. The 400-yard medley relay team of Olivieri, Freshman Sean Feeney, Parkes and Lundin tied the existing record during their first try at it and then broke it later in the week during a time trial.
“It’s just a testament to how far the program’s come in the past couple of years,” Wahl said. “The [400-yard medley relay] was my first men’s relay record as the coach of this program. Hopefully we can just keep building on this momentum here.”
Now officially swammers, the seniors are hopeful for the future of the program.
“It’s awesome to see,” Kilburn said. “You don’t see freshmen or sophomores show out much in a lot of sports. And to see them pull these times and get on the podium and some of them break records? It’s really promising for this program. I’m really excited to see how well they do and watch them grow.”
“[Parkes] being someone who looks up to me means a lot to me,” Olivieri said. “I want my teammates to know that although I might be gone next year, life goes on. They’ll swim harder. They’ll swim faster. The team’s in good hands.”
For full meet results, see Meet Mobile or SwimCloud.
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