[Breeze]

2022-23 Berry Viking Men’s Swimming Roster

The season starts this weekend, so I'm going to post the roster as best I can. The one posted on the schools website includes a couple of people that aren't on the team, so I'm not sure how accurate it actually is, but we'll go with what we have (I'll drop the swimmers that are listed but I know aren't active). Also projecting how the swimmer will do this year is going to be next to impossible. The conference has another large influx of talent and it's going to make finals significantly more challenging. Until I have an idea what events these freshmen are going to swim, and what times they post, I'll be simply guessing based on outdated data.

The team had a very small recruiting class in 21/22. They added just 2 swimmers and 1 diver. However, they did get a diver that quit the team right before conference last year to return, and another swimmer that was academically ineligable also rejoined. This is important because it gives Berry over a full roster. In fact, if everyone is capable of swimming at conference (a big if based on last year's results) there will be 1 person on the men's side that won't count towards the team's totals.

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Alex Bartik (Sr.)
Alex has been a great performer for the Vikings. He's capable of competing in several areas as his best event is still probably the 200 IM, with his Free and Fly being his best strokes. In fact, he managed to swim a personal best in the 100 fly (52.78) last year. In his first 2 years Alex earned 24 and 23 points at conference. Last year he had a disappointing 15 point result. Ultimately, his point total was impacted by 2 things. One - the depth of talent in the conference, and Two - a bad strategic decision on how to swim the 200 IM at finals. In 2020, Alex finished 10th in the 200 IM. In 2021, he finished 9th. Last year, in prelims, Alex posted a time only .3 off of his finals swim the year before, but it was only good enough to qualify 13th. In finals, he decided to hold back a bit early to ensure he had energy to sprint home, but that left him battling choppy water, which ultimately cost him about a full second and placed him 15th overall. Combine that with a 13th place finish in the 100 free, again because of improved depth in the field, and you can see why his point total was down. Alex continues to be one of the strongest swimmers on the B relays and will be expected to at least help bolster those units with an outside shot of sneaking onto an A relay.

Billy Blood (So.)
In his Freshman year Billy scored 29.5 points at conference, right on that target goal of 30 points. He showed real good improvement in his sprint freestyle during the 21-22 season, posting personal bests in both the 50 and 100. This makes him a potential participant on B sprint frees. However, his primary role will continue to be one of the team's top backstrokers. In conference last year, he managed to make A finals in both the 100 and 200 back, finishing 7th and 6th respectively. His third event was the super deep 200 IM where he placed 12th. I'm not sure the 200 IM is the best option for Billy, despite his strong showing. He's very capable of competing in a number of other events. Moreover, just slight improvements in the 200 back could place him in a position to medal.

Noah Brand (Sr.)
One of the most disappointing things from the 21-22 season was the injury that kept Noah from competing at the conference championships. His absence was a significant impact on the team. Noah is the best sprinter the Vikings have, and removing him from the equation created a ripple effect that was felt the entire weekend. All of the sprint relays were impacted, and to a lesser extent some of the potential energy that can be generated from exciting and successful swims was lost. If Noah returns to form this season, he'll be in for some amazing races. It appears that all of the big time sprinters from last season elected to return, taking advantage of their extra year of eligibility due to Covid. Noah will have a chance to medal in whatever events he chooses to swim, and he'll be the primary piece on all 4 of his relays.

Andrew Horn (So.)
Andrew had a nice freshman season at conference totaling 20 points. All 20 of his points came from his primary stroke - Breast, where he finished 9th in the 100 and made A finals in the 200 finishing 8th. He's capable of making A finals in both distances which would increase his point total by a couple. Unfortunately, he failed to point in his 3rd event. In 21-22 he entered the super deep 200 IM and finished 21st in prelims. I don't believe the 200 IM is his best option, and certainly with the strength of that field, it's asking a lot to get into the top 16. If I were the coach, I'd plan to groom him this season to swim either the 200 Fly, 400 IM, or 1650. If he did any of those events as the 3rd option he'd almost certainly score, and he's talented enough to be a top 10 finisher in any of the 3 events mentioned. If he can score in his 3rd event, his overall total will likely improve to over 25 and maybe as high as 30 points.

Hunter Kenny (Jr.)
Hunter had a huge 21-22 conference championship, earning a whopping 43 points, a significant improvement over his freshman total of 33 points. Much of his point total improvement was due to changing his events. As a freshman, Hunter focused on sprint free competing in the 50, 100, and 200. He managed A finals in the 50 and 100 and just missed A finals in the 200. In 22-23 he decided to compete in the 50 and 200 frees and added the 200 fly as well. This was a big change, but it paid off handsomely. In the 50 free he popped personal best in finals (21.37) and finished 5th overall. In the 200 free he was only about .1 of a second off his PB and he finished 6th. Then in the 200 fly he managed another PB, this time with a significant drop of 4.33 seconds (1:55.82) to finish 3rd and earn the broze medal. It will be interesting to see where Hunter focuses this year. Obviously, 40+ points is an excellent showing, and it wouldn't be surprising to see him duplicate his schedule this year to see if he can also duplicate the results. In addition to his strong individual performances, Hunter is a key element in the relays due to his strong sprint ability. Given Noah's return it's hard to project what Hunter will swim in relays, but I'd assume, at a minimum, he's in the A relay for the 200 Free and 400 Free, while anchoring the freestyle on the B medleys. It also wouldn't be a surprise to see him on the A 800 free relay, especially if he swims a lot of 200 free and 200 fly during the season.

Ryan McKinnon (Jr.)
Ryan is another of the Berry swimmers that improved on an his strong results from his freshman year. As a freshman, Ryan scored 33 points. Last year he upped his total to 37 points, and seems to have found a niche as an all-rounder, rather than just a breaststroker. As a freshman, Ryan focused on the 100 and 200 breasts, and as you can tell from his point total he was very successful. Coming into the season last year, breast was clearly one of the team's strengths. In fact, in my preseason write up last year, I wondered several times about some swimmers potentially finding other events so the they didn't effectively steal points from themselves by having so many swimmers in the same races. I also noted that Ryan had potential to be a strong 400 IMer. Well, last season Ryan proved me correct. He decided to move off of the 100 breast and instead focus on the 200 IM, 400 IM, and 200 Breast, a schedule of events that seems to fit. Ryan is a big, strong kid, and the longer tougher events seem to suit him as he posted personal bests in all 3 events last year. He just missed the A finals in the 200 IM taking 9th in prelims and finals. Then he finished 6th overall in the 400 IM, only .15 seconds from 5th. Moreover, he took 4th in the 200 breast, just missing out on a medal. Another season of slight improvements could see Ryan top 40 points and maybe take home a medal.

Harrison McNeil (Sr.)
Harrison is one of the 3 swimmers that came in when Bear did, but will be leaving a year early. Harrison is part of the 3/2 engineering program, which consists of 3 years at Berry followed by 2 years at Georgia Tech, so this is his last season swimming. He's been a great swimmer for Berry, posting 30+ points as a freshman and 27 last year. McNeil is a sprint freestyler competing in the 50, 100, and 200 over the last 2 years, and will undoubtedly do it again this year. He's capable of making 3 A finals, but so far he's been unable to crack the top 8 in the 50, settling for 9th back to back seasons. The sprint frees are arguably tightest of all the events, because pretty much every swimmer can swim free fast. The problem with that is that the margin for error is so small. I honestly believe we haven't seen Harrison's best yet. He is so fast in the middle of the pool, quite possibly as fast as anyone in conference, but his dives and turns are hit or miss. If he can clean those up, I think 3 A finals and potentially 3 top 5 finishes are possible.

Breck Richards (So.)
One of the strong freshman from last year, Breck, like Billy above was right at that 30 point goal score, posting 28. Breck, also like Billy above is primarily a backstroker. In fact, all of last season Billy and Breck alternated as the top backstroker on the team, and their season best swims for both the 100 and 200 were close. Hopefully, because the two are so close in times they will continue to push each other to improve. Last year Breck made both A finals in the backstroke finishing 8th in both. He actually probably would have done better in the 200 back, but he slipped on the start, costing him 4 full seconds and killing any chance he had to do better. Breck's 3rd event is the 50 free, where he made the middle of the B final. Again the extremely tight field magnifies slight improvements or mistakes, so if he stays with that race, he could finish anywhere from back of A final to missing the B final all together.

Emilio Rico (So.)
Another one of the strong freshman class from last year. Unfortunately, we were unable to see how impactful Rico could be at conference due to an ankle injury he suffered right before the competition. He started off competing at the event, but ultimately withdrew due to pain and fear of doing further damage to the joint. Despite the fact he was injured, he still managed to finish 16th in the previously mentioned deep 200 IM. Uninjured, his times indicate he's a potentially an A finalist in both breaststrokes and both IMs. In addition, the 500 and 1650 are potential options for him. I'm not sure what he'll compete in this season, but I'd expect the 200 breast for sure, as his personal best is over 1.5 seconds faster than Ryan's, and Ryan finished 4th in conference last year. Honestly, I believe the 100 breast, 200 breast and 4 IM are his best events, but to do that schedule he'd have to double up because the 400 IM and 100 breast are the same day. If he's healthy, I'd be suprised if he isn't easily over 30 points this year at conference. In fact, he will probably be closer to 40 than 30.

Paxton Smathers (Sr.)
Paxton had a big year last year. He posted personal bests in the 50, 100, and 200 frees. Unfortunately, he just missed finals in the 50 free, finishing 17th in prelims, despite being just .2 seconds off his best ever time. He finished 9th in the 200 free and 15th in the 100 free for a total of 11 points. He also helped the relays significantly. Coming into this season, I was expecting more of the same from Paxton, strong freestyle swims that would require a good performance at conference to score, again due to the tightness of the sprint free races, along with a serious presence on the team's relays. Unfortunately, Paxton has had some tough luck recently. Over the summer Paxton was going through boot camp for the Marines (which he'll go straight into following graduation in May), and when he returned home it was determined he developed a stress fracture in his leg. This had him laid up for several weeks, preventing him from staying in shape or swimming. Making matters worse, almost immediately following the injury he developed mono, and has been extremely sick. Apparently it'll be around November 7th before he's released to begin training, which places his entire senior year in jeopardy.

Sam Tate (So.)
Sam had a huge 48 point total at conference last year. How strong was his performace - he took home 3 bronze medals. Making it even more impressive - he did it in 3 very different events, the 200 IM, 100 Breast, and 100 Back. Oh, and in case you weren't convinced about how strong an all around swimmer he was, he was on both A sprint free relays. Tate is a threat no matter what event he chooses to enter, but I believe the 3 he chose for 2022 are his 3 best.

Diego Torres (Jr.)
Diego continues to improve, as he posted personal bests in both the 50 and 100 frees. Unfortunately, those are spint frees and his times are not in scoring range. Last year at conference he did manage to finish 13th in the 100 back and earn 4 points. This year, if he wants to be part of the 18 person travel team, he really needs to look for ways to back-end points. Typically, the best way to accomplish that is swim the longer races. His best options would probably be the 200 back and 1650 free. With training to handle the distances, he should be able to post competitive times in those events by the time conference rolls around in February. If he dedicates himself to those 2 events he could earn 10 to 12 points this February. If he insists on staying with freestyle swims, he's potentially going to be the odd man out.

Ross Valdez (Sr.)
During his freshman year, Ross had just returned from Covid protocol 3 days before the conference championship, and he still managed to get 44 points. However, last year the SAA conference got to see what he's truely capable of. Ross finished 1st in the 500 free, 2nd in the 200 free, and 2nd in the 1650 for a grand total of 54 points! Ross also managed to earn a D3 NCAA B cut (though he didn't actualy get invited to swim). I'd expect his goal this season is to get the actual invite to the NCAA championship meet, but that will take a pretty significant improvement. It's not out of the realm of posibility, but it's not a forgone conclusion either, especially since times have gotten even tougher following the additional year of eligibility due to Covid. Regardless, of what his goals are, Ross will be a threat to win whatever event he choses to enter. That includes the 3 he swam in last year, plus both of the fly races and the 400 IM.

Ethan Whiting (So.)
Another of the strong freshman from last year, Ethan scored 42 points at conference, and he did it competing in events I wasn't expecting. I viewed Ethan as more of a distance freestyler, and I expected him to be in the 200, 500, and 1650. Instead, he illustrated that he's an all-around swimmer by competing in the 500 free, 400 IM, and 200 fly. His decision worked out well as he finished 7th, 4th, and 4th respectively. Truth is, he was so close to earning a medal in both the 400 IM and 200 fly. He finished prelims in the 400 IM in second, but slipped to 4th at finals, and in the 200 fly he was 3rd in prelims, but teammate Kenny beat him in finals to take the bronze. He is another swimmer that will be a factor to earn a medal this year.

Collin Dillard (So.)
Collin was a freshman on the team for the first semester of the 21-22 season, but was unable to compete second semester due to academic issues. Meaning, he missed the conference championship so we don't have a full assessment on him. Collin is basically a breaststroker and based on his personal best times he should be in the top 10 to 12 in the 100 and 200, which is a strong showing and should earn him around 12 to 15 points. The biggest item for Collin is developing a 3rd event he can score in. The best option is likely the 200 fly, but that would require buy in from Collin, because it will take a good bit of effort to do that race, and it doesn't appear to be a race he's done frequently (if at all). Based on his times, the rest of the options fall into 1 of 2 categories - he'll either need to improve a decent amount to get into scoring position, or he'll need to buy in and train up to compete in a longer event that requires more effort. We'll see where this goes.

Keith Scarbor (Fr.)
One of the 2 freshman that signed with Berry despite very little effort put into recruiting by the coaches and then the tumultuous offseason that saw Coach Paul fired late in the process and the new coach not hired until right before school started. Keith comes in with two events that appear to be in the mid to lower B final scoring range, the 200 fly and the 1650 (extrapolated from the 1000 Free). If he adopts the attituted that swimming these events and ones similar is the best way to help the team, he could be a surprise at conference capable of earning double digit points. If instead, he insists on swimming the sprint frees, then he likely won't earn any points and could be left off the 18 person conference team.

Mac Shefchunas (Fr.)
The second freshman added to the team, and Mac is a nice get for the Vikings. He was a swimmer with Bear at Gold for serveral years and then again at SwimAtlanta when both moved over within a few months of each other. Mac is another swimmer on the team who's best stroke is breast. In fact, he's a very nice replacement for '22 graduate Tyler Stephenson, who earned 24 points at conference last year. Mac's personal best times in the 100 breast is half a second better than Tyler's and in the 200 he's closer to 2 seconds faster. This is important because Tyler finished 7th in both those events last year. Meaning Mac is in A final range in both breaststrokes and he's capable of making finals in his 3rd event. One of the two IMs is probably his best option, but without any improvement at all he should be middle of the B final in eiher of those races. This puts him in striking distance of that 30 point goal.

Bear Breeze (Sr.)
This is Bear's last go around, and it's also a very unsettled season for him. His shoulder has not improved, and given his level of discomfort I'm not convinced he's going to stick with the distance races. He may elect to go with other options so his training distances will be shorter and the number of shoulder revolutions will be lower. He's certainly capable of being competitive in the 400 IM and the 200 Fly, and with some focused training might find he's much faster at the sprint frees than he shown in the past. He also may elect to sprint early in the season, then try to ramp up mid season and winter training to prep for swimming distance at conference. A lot is up in the air still. However, given his health, I'd expect that he probably won't beat his personal best times in the 500, 1000 or 1650 this season, which I was hoping he'd do. I really wanted him to go out with PB swims in the events he battled through for so many years.


DIVERS

The team actually has 2 divers this season, which is big because each diver counts as half a competitor at a swim meet, so two allows the team to maximize the returns. Moreoever, one of the two divers is acting as the diving coach, and he's taking it so seriously the team goes to an offsite facility a couple of days a week to work on the 3 meter board. That's another huge development because it will give both divers a chance to earn points in 2 events rather than just 1.

Kevin Fuentes-Bonilla (Sr.)
Kevin is the diver that quit last season, right before conference because of a conflict with Coach Paul. With the new coach for '22-'23 he's elected to return for his senior year. Last year, Kevin began to show serious signs of improvement before a concussion put him on the shelf for a while. Hopefully, this new coach will be able to continue pushing the right buttons to get most out of Bonilla. Keep in mind, that before he showed any signs of improvement he earned 12 points at the 2021 championships only competing in the 1 meter board event. By doing both events and improving his technique it's possible he could earn 20 points this time around. That would be a huge windfall for the Vikings if he can pull it off.

Joshua Tolson (Sr.)
Meet the new diving coach. Joshua comes to Berry from UGA, where he was not a member of the dive team. However, he has been a diver for a long time, and he placed in the top 8 in Georgia state and high school meets 3 straight years. He should be a strong competitor in the conference - no idea how well he'll match up, because I haven't watched enough of the diving at the conference championships to get a gauge, but his resume would indicate he would probably be in the running for a medal on both of the events. He could end up with a large conference point total at the end of the day.