The Wilkes Swim Team finished its second ever season last weekend in York, Pa., at the MAC tournament. With this being only the second year, the men’s and women’s teams had a hard time finding much success in the pool. The women’s team finished the season at 3-9 overall and 1-8 in the conference. The men’s team, however, was only able to accomplish one win overall, giving them a record of 1-11 and 0-9 in the conference.

Although this is the case, the team is not discouraged by the past year’s record.

“The team’s greatest accomplishment was probably being able to compete with other teams from the conference,” said freshman Allie Aspey. “We may not have won all of our meets but we were able to compete with other teams in relays and some individual events. This is a big deal for a second year team, because this means that in the upcoming years we might even be able beat them.”

Both teams are very young, since the teams only have two recruiting classes under their belts. With that being said, both teams have broken program records in the ‘15-’16 season, meaning there were improvements from the previous year.

At the conference tournament in York Pa., the women’s relay team consisting of  Amanda Lopez, Allie Aspey, Cassandra Morey and Danielle McCole broke the program record in the 400 relay with a 3:52.39 time. Morgan Williams broke the 1650 free program record with a time of 19:57.27.

Lopez was not done breaking records: She beat her own record in the 100 free with a time of 57.01. Lopez was even a part of a relay that broke the 200 free program record, teamed with Kate Thomas, McCole and Morey.

“My greatest accomplishment this season would have been taking on the 400 IM, a new event for me and for the team since no one has swam it before, ” said Aspey, who broke the program record in this event with a time of 5:02.77: 12th best in the conference.

The men’s team had a relay team composed of Will Hauze, Thurman Fogleman, Michael Henne and Pete Feno, which finished 10th in the conference in the 400 medley relay.

Although they were not the fastest in the water, they are among the smartest in the classroom.

“We know what we need to do to push each other toward our goals.  Our men’s team was the only men’s team in the MAC Conference to be named a CSCAA Scholar All-American team for the fall semester,” said senior sprinter Chris Bright.

Bright went on to say this proves that the team has what it takes to outwork the competition in the MAC; once the team gets more recruiting classes, the wins will start rolling in.

“Our greatest accomplishment this season was breaking numerous women’s and men’s records,” said Head Coach Mark Barnes.  “We never gave up and were dedicated to our training all season long.”