The Trinity University Swim and Dive team hosted their annual alumni meet in the natatorium on Saturday Oct. 26. Alumni jumped back into the pool to compete with and against current students. Two alumni missing from the meet were inducted into the Trinity Hall of Fame.
The swim community was invited to return to the natatorium to revisit their time at Trinity. Coach Pruden shared how the team stays in touch with alumni throughout the season.
“We’ve definitely worked hard at getting [the alumni] engaged, just trying to send some regular email updates throughout the year about how our season’s going and what’s going on here, just so they still feel some connection to the program. I think a lot of them stay connected with us just through social media, just to see what’s going on. And it’s just cool for them to see folks having really similar experiences to what they did,” Pruden said.
The current swimmers were able to talk with some of their old teammates who recently graduated, as well as alumni from before their time at Trinity. Parents were also welcome to attend the event.
“It’s just really cool to give alumni a chance to get back in a pool they spent so many hours in and fun for our current students, just to get to chat with them and just see folks who have left still love the sport enough that like they want to come back and hang out and be around it” Coach Pruden said.
The alumni meet includes nontraditional swimming events, including one in which the entire lap is swam underwater. Jules Wiehrdt, a junior biology major, described how she uses the meet as an opportunity to compete in races she wouldn’t do in the season.
“Anyone who’s actively on the team is required to do at least two events that add up to 50 yards,” Wiehrdt said. “I usually take this meet to do things that I would never swim. I did a 50 breaststroke, and then I did the 4×25 underwater relay. That’s not something you’ll ever see at another meet, but it’s more just like a fun event.”
The alumni and swimmers are not barred from competing on the same relay teams, but this year the teams split into alumni against current members. The races were very competitive, and winners were split between alumni and current athletes. Will Kitto, senior business and economics double-major, talked about the outcomes of the races.
“I swam the 50 free, the 50 fly, and I was a participant on the winning 4×25 freestyle relay,” Kitto said. “It just so happened that I think on all the relays we had it was split alumni and the current swimmers. One of the things that we can’t control is the fact that we’re at the peak volume of our season. We’re about as slow as we’re gonna get right now. The alumni swimmers, they all swim for about a month leading up to the meet, just to get the feel for the water back, so they’re all fully rested. There are some events that we do lose to them, but I would say it’s about 50/50.”
Over on the football field, swimmers Joseph Moore, Men’s Swimming ‘00 and Sarah Scott Handy, Women’s Swimming ‘98 were welcomed as a new group of alumni into the hall of fame. The inductees talked to the team about their time at Trinity.
“One of our Hall of Famers came to talk to the team Friday night and he was like, ‘I don’t remember my times,’ but he told us some really great stories about impactful moments from his college career. I think at the end of the day, they just enjoy knowing that other people are having kind of as meaningful of an experience as they did,” Pruden said.
