For the first time in its four-year existence, the Quincy University men’s swim team found itself in the top 25. They ranked 23rd in the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America poll.

Lets see how they got there.

The team has a 3-0 dual meet record. They are striving to place in the top six at the GLVC conference meet in February.

The inaugural team had 10 men, eight of which were incoming freshmen and the other two were sophomore transfers. The team swam their way to a six and six record. With just 16 swimmers total, the hawks had something to build on. The men’s side placed 8th out of 10 at the GLVC conference championships.

The team had a national qualifier but were locked out from competing due to how small the roster was.

They looked forward to their sophomore season as a program.

Over the summer, coach Bryan Christensen signed a total of 22 swimmers, 15 of which were men. Driving the Men’s team total up to 25 swimmers. With the numbers the hawks had, it appeared they could compete with teams in the GLVC.

However, as Quincy got better so did the majority of the GLVC so the gap was not closed as much as Christensen had hoped.

The team went one and six in dual meets with a much harder schedule than the previous year. They placed 8th out of 11 teams in a stacked GLVC conference, where the top three teams in the conference each finished top five at Nationals.

“In our first year we were small but we were always very confident. Our current success feels very justified, it has been a lot of work, and a lot of growth over the past four years. Our experience and maturity has caught up to our confidence and talent and our culture has evolved to meet our high standards. However, staying good can also be harder than getting good so this is really just the beginning,” Christensen said.

Year three was the year everything started to come together with another decent sized recruiting class and a handful of transfers, the team started the year three and zero in dual meets. The hawks received top 25 votes for the first time in school history but never cracked the top 25.

“Yeah its really cool to be ranked nationally, especially for my senior year this team is special and we are really good so I hope we can keep it going for the rest of the season,” Nolan May said.

Finishing 8th in the conference and sending just two swimmers to nationals and being two seconds from sending a relay to Indianapolis. The team finished 29th out 36 with a seventh place finisher in the 400 IM of Wyatt Walsh.

Entering the fourth year of the season, the team has its first senior class all looking to make the year one to remember.

“Its cool to see what we built in just 4 years, I think this team has gotten better and better each season and hopefully we can finish strong,” Zack Kopsea said.

It seems to be the case that the team is once again three and zero in dual meets and making a strong push to finish top six in the GLVC and send a bigger team to nationals. In result of all the success and hardwork the hawks have found themselves ranked in the top 25 for the first time in program history.

At the midseason point, the hawks are flying high and swimming fast.