The Journal

Issue date: 11/17/05 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Brent Holzapfel Webster swimmers take their annual run across campus.

The men's and women's swimming season officially began Oct. 14, and swimmers on both teams have already broken numerous school records.

On the men's team, freshman Adam Rafferty was a state finalist at Liberty High School twice in three years. Rafferty has broken four Gorlok records: 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle, 1,000-yard freestyle and the 200-yard individual medley (IM).

"Adam is a very stellar freshman," said coach Kevin Mabie. "The list keeps growing. It seems like he breaks a new record every meet."

Junior Kevin McKee is another men's team record breaker. He is a returning swimmer and finished second in the Liberal Arts Championship in the 100-yard breaststroke last year and this year, McKee is shooting for first. The Liberal Arts Championship is an equivalent to the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) Championships. The swim team is not in the SLIAC like the rest of the Gorlok teams because not enough schools in the SLIAC have swim teams.

At the Liberal Arts Championship, McKee finished the 100-yard breaststroke event in 01:01. Mabie expects McKee's time to be under a minute this season.

Mabie said Rafferty and McKee both have a legitimate shot at nationals this year and if they did, it would be a first for the Gorlok swim team.

As for the women's team, two of its players also have broken records. Freshman Brianna Schilling has broken the school record for the 100-yard butterfly and is unbeaten in competitions against Division III schools.

Junior Josie Muhm, a returning swimmer and captain, is right behind Schilling for the lead in the butterfly event and also is the leader in distance freestyle events.

The team competed against Eureka College Nov. 12. The Gorloks swam a mile and competed in the 400-IM, which is 100 yards of every kind of stroke, for the first time this season.

Going into the meet, Mabie knew it would be interesting since the women's teams are very close in skill and Eureka doesn't have much of a men's team - they only have one player. Having one swimmer for a swim team may seem odd, but Mabie said it's a way to get a team started. The Gorloks had only two swimmers on the team two years ago and built it up from there. In fact, Mabie is still trying to build up the team today. The men's and women's teams now have nine swimmers each, but Mabie would like to build both teams up to 15 each. Any interested swimmers still can join up to the spring semester.

But even those 18 swimmers can make a big impact as the Gorloks topped nine of the 12 relays Nov. 12.

"I have been happy with the team's improvement from meet to meet," Mabie said.

To keep the team improving, Mabie wants to get them "more and more tired" and work them harder at each practice because once they recover, the team will compete even better.

The rest of the schedule will be pretty tough, Mabie said. The team will compete against some Division I schools, which some swimmers don't like, but Mabie said it prepares the team even better for the Division III schools and he said that right now the team has a lot of building to do.

The key meets the team will train for are Dec. 23 against Augustana College and Feb. 16 at the Liberal Arts Championship.

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