After fourth and fifth place team finishes at the GLIAC Championships, the swim team is now shifting its focus to the national meet. The 2012 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championship will be held March 14-17 in Mansfield, Tex. Ashland is slated to have 11 or 12 swimmers competing in the meet, a group that will include four or five men and seven women.

The Eagle men finished fourth and the women placed fifth at the GLIAC Championships, held Feb. 8-11 in Jenison, Mich. Among the top performers were juniors Julie Widmann and Tyler Remmel. They each had record-setting performances and will compete at NCAAs along with seniors Maura Anderson and Mary Cargill, juniors Rachel Ausdenmoore, Mauricio Uranga and Cheyne Fisher, and sophomores Alex Sheil, Gaby Verdugo, Brittany Finlay and Sara Reidler.

Widmann started things off Wednesday, Feb. 8 with a record-breaking swim and automatic NCAA berth in the 50-yard freestyle. She finished the race in 22.84 seconds, setting a new conference mark as well as a school record. The time also broke the pool record, which was previously held by Widmann.

“I was happy with that time because it was the first time I broke 23 (seconds),” she said.

Remmel’s shining moments came in the 100 butterfly and 200 breaststroke. He placed third and had personal best times in each. His time of 49.18 in the 100 fly broke the school record by half a second. 

In the 200 breast final, Remmel bettered his time from prelims by five seconds, finishing in 2:01.63 and breaking his previous best in the event by over a second.

“I was really happy with how I swam,” Remmel said.

Fisher had a first-place finish in the 100 breast, touching Grand Valley State’s Aaron Marken by .04. He finished with a time of 54.82.

Both the men and women will be sending a medley relay to Nationals. The women’s 200-medley relay grabbed an automatic berth with a time of 1:43.01, good for second place at the meet. Widmann swam a blazing 22.1 split as the anchor, beating her opponent by more than a second, but it was not enough to come back for the win.

The men’s 400-medley relay also placed second, touching the wall in 3:17.63 to punch their tickets to Mansfield. 

Although both the men’s and women’s teams had several high finishers and will be sending swimmers to Nationals, they were unable to match teams like Wayne State, Grand Valley State and Indianapolis in points at the GLIAC meet.

“We just don’t have the same depth that those teams have and that hurts us in a few different events,” Sheil said. “Some of the events we hold our own, but those couple events that we don’t have that depth really hurt us.”

Ashland finished with 493.5 points in the men’s meet, 378.5 points behind first-place Wayne State and 47 points behind Indianapolis, who finished third. The women piled up 369 points, 554 less than first-place Wayne State and 59 behind fourth-place Northern Michigan.

Many of the friendly rivalries that spring up during GLIAC competition turn into friendships once the teams get to the national level. The conference teams hang out together, creating a “GLIAC versus everyone else” environment.

“The conference comes together and they almost become your team,” Fisher said.

The five-week period between GLIACs and Nationals means that the swimmers will head to Texas well-rested with lofty goals in mind. 

“Even with the four of us (Fisher, Remmel and Uranga), if we could sneak our way into the top 10, or around the same place we got last year, it would be pretty amazing for four guys to be able to do that,” Sheil said.

Widmann and Anderson will have several chances to improve on what they accomplished last year at Nationals. Last year, Anderson took seventh place in the 100 breast and Widmann was third in both the 50 and 100 freestyles. Both are on the 200-medley relay team that, according to Ashland’s coaches, has a chance to win a national championship and break the NCAA record. Right now, they are ranked second in the country, behind Wayne State.

“It’s just exciting to know that we swam these great times at conference already and we can do so much better at Nationals,” Anderson said. “I’m really pumped.”

Sophomore Jake Miller will also make the meet if Ashland’s men’s 200 medley relay is ranked high enough to be selected to the meet next Tuesday.