Swimmers dive in to win race medleys

By RUTH DALRYMPLE

The University of Mary Washington sent 10 swimmers to the NCAA Division III National Championship held this week in Shenandoah, Texas, a major increase from the three UMW students sent to last year’s championship.

The swimmers included six men: Alex Anderson, Nick Eckhoff, Michael Yelmgren, Peter Slattery, Sean Mayer and Jack McHugh, and four women: Amber Kerico, Katie Fago, Hannah Hagy and Stephanie Hallock.

Sophomore chemistry major Alex Anderson won the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 3:50.55, which beat his previous personal best by seven seconds and breaks the NCAA Division III championship record of 3:51.45 set by Alex Beyer of Washington University in 2009.  Anderson also placed second in the 200-yard butterfly.  Anderson is the fourth individual national champion in UMW’s history. He also achieved All-American honors.

“He deserved all of his wins.  He works hard every single day.  It was nice to see him do really well because he’s not only a great swimmer, but a great student,” said junior biology major Amber Kerico.

Anderson, Slattery, Yelmgren and Echkhoff took twelfth place in the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:21.72 and also achieved All-American honors for this race. Anderson, Eckhoff, McHugh and Mayer placed eighteenth in the 800 free relay with a time of 6:52.20.

“I think it’s really cool,” said sophomore biology major Michael Yelmgren on making honors.  “It is the last thing I wanted to do for the season.  I got the school record, the confrence record and now this, so I have a trifecta.”

Kerico placed thirteenth in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:04.69.  She gained All-American honors for the second year in a row.

“It was cool; I did it last year though,” said Kerico.  “I would like to go for something higher.”