Bridgewater, Va- The Bridgewater swim team had its yearly Swamly weekend swim event during Family Weekend that invited not only the families of the swimmers but also team alumni to swim in fun relays against each other before the season kicks off.
This year for Swamly weekend, Coaches Gwynn Harrison and Ethan Coleman invited the alumni back for an alumni event. Many former swimmers came back to see the current team and join in on the fun of swimming in relays to reconnect with their former teammates. Even a few parents of alumni came out to visit, as well as the parents of current swimmers. This event served as a big family reunion for the swim team.
“Swamly weekend started very humbly a few years ago with parents stopping by practice on family weekend, to the brunch, and now to families in the relays,” said Head Coach Gwynn Harrison. “It’s one of my favorite parts of the year as we gear up each season to reconnect with upperclassman families and welcome our new families into the Swamly weekend! We have always had amazing parents support at meets, and I think the parents become really good friends with each other throughout their time at Bridgewater, and I think this event helps tone those connections.”
The Bridgewater swim team swam relays in their “nest” groups, which are groups set up for team camaraderie. The nest groups are set up as a way to connect the team with each other.
“We have such a large team, so the nest helps break down the team into smaller parts so people can have a support group and get to know each other better,” said health and exercise science major sophomore McKenna Curry.
For the Swamly events, the “nest” groups each had A and B relays. The events swam were the 200 medley relay, 2 x 50 backstroke, 200 free relay, 2 x 50 breaststroke, 100 underwater relay, 2 x 50 fly and 4 x 25 family relay. The parents cheered on their kids, and the team got to cheer their “nest” groups on during a fun intersquad meet.
“It meant so much to me to have my family swim with me,” said biology major senior Abby Martin. “They’ve been by my side throughout my swimming career, through all of the ups and downs for eight years now, so I loved having them swim with me! This is always one of our favorite events, and I think our positive team culture brings people back year after year. I’m already excited to come back next year because it’s going to be hard to leave.”
“It meant everything to come back to see how the team was doing, and I had a lot of fun getting to know the new people,” said Class of 2024 alumni Jonathan Taylor. “BC swim has had one of the biggest impacts on me while I was at Bridgewater. The team has given me everything in the sport with a great community of people and coaches.”
The swim team’s first meet was on Sept. 28, 2024, in Lexington, VA, at Washington and Lee University. The purpose of the ODAC swim meet was for all the teams to gather together for a season opener to get scope out the competition and see where teams were at before the season. The women’s team came in 5th place out of 10th and the men’s team came in 4th out of 8th.
