St. Joseph’s University, New York’s Long Island Campus has added men’s swimming to its roster of varsity athletic teams.
Since the team’s debut on Long Island, SJNY swimmers have competed in Skyline Conference matches in all four strokes (freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly). The team also competed against other NCAA Division III teams in the region, including Brooklyn College and Adelphi University.
Swimming is unlike any other sport because the men and women teams work as one during practices and competitions. Since the Long Island campus already had a women’s swim team competing in the conference, it was an easy choice to add a men’s team.
“Our women’s team was already competing in the Skyline Conference, where all of the other members had both men’s and women’s swim teams,” said Head Coach Christopher Brandenburger. “Swimming is unique from other sports in that 95% of schools in the country, the women and men teams operate together. They practice together, they compete together, they travel to competitions together–so it made a lot of sense for us to add a men’s program.”
Since the start of the program last January, the team has made great progress, recruiting multiple new members and creating a successful dynamic.
“They have really come a long way since we started practicing in early September. You can look at each of their times from when they first started racing in October and compare it to the times they are achieving now and see a huge improvement,” said Brandenburger.
SJNY student and swim team member Robert Kohlmann recently received the “Elite 19” award.
The men’s team marked its first victory on Jan. 15 against Purchase College and quickly scored its second on Jan. 18 against Sarah Lawrence College. Both wins came against Skyline Conference foes.
The team has kept working hard, in and out of practice, to ensure their first season wouldn’t be one to forget, according to Coach Brandenberger.
All of this work paid off when the team secured a third-place finish in the Skyline Conference Championships.
“For the men’s team to finish in third place and only 19 points out of second place spoke volumes about how they swam for each other and not just as individuals on the same team. Every one of them was willing to swim whatever we thought would score the most points for the team. They worked hard all season and I was happy to see it pay off for them in the end,” said Brandenberger.
At the conference championship, junior Robert Kohlmann received the coveted “Elite 19” award, which is given to one male and one female student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average competing in the conference.
For students interested in joining the team, you can reach out to Coach Brandenberger through his email, cbrandenberger@sjny.edu, or fill out the recruiting form on the SJNY athletics website.
