Swim­ming and Div­ing Com­pete at KCAC Cham­pi­onships, Fin­ish Sea­son

MISHAWAKA—The 2020-21 sea­son for the swim­ming and div­ing team was a rocky road. The team joined the Kansas Col­le­giate Ath­letic Con­fer­ence in June, dropped its first three meets, won the next three, com­peted at the KCAC Cham­pi­onships from Feb. 4 to Feb. 6 and then re­ceived the news that the NAIA Cham­pi­onships have been can­celled. 

Al­though the sea­son brought its fair share of ob­sta­cles, the Bethel Men’s and Wom­en’s Swim­ming and Div­ing teams fin­ished fourth in their con­fer­ence cham­pi­onships. 

“First off, I am very happy that we were able to com­pete,” Head Coach Deb Thomp­son said. “Many schools were un­able to even have a sea­son. And de­spite our na­tional meet be­ing can­celed it was nice to fin­ish off the sea­son so well at our con­fer­ence meet.” 

The Pi­lots were able to bring home one con­fer­ence cham­pion in Paula Ronda Bou in the 200m Fly stroke. They also had six sec­ond-place fin­ishes, thir­teen third-place fin­ishes and thirty-four top-eight place­ments. Over­all, the Pi­lots were able to fin­ish in fourth place, which was bet­ter than many ex­pected for the newly formed Swim­ming and Div­ing pro­gram. 

“It was a nice team ef­fort at the KCAC Cham­pi­onships,” Thomp­son said. “We were able to have our first ever con­fer­ence cham­pion, as well as many other great per­for­mances from the team. It was also nice to crack the top of this con­fer­ence, there are a hand­ful of teams that are very quick and it was nice to have a con­fer­ence cham­pion.” 

While the Pi­lots were on their way to the KCAC Cham­pi­onships, they re­ceived news that the NAIA Cham­pi­onships were can­celed, mean­ing that this would be the Pi­lots’ last op­por­tu­nity to swim this sea­son.  

“We heard on our bus to the con­fer­ence meet that na­tion­als were can­celed,” Thomp­son said. “I told the team on the bus that they were can­celed. But we put a pos­i­tive spin on the de­ci­sion by know­ing we are ready to com­pete at the con­fer­ence meet, and that we needed to per­form.” 

Head­ing into next sea­son the Pi­lots, who are still very young, will only grad­u­ate one se­nior, Al­fonso Flo­res. Flo­res trans­ferred in from Iowa Cen­tral Com­mu­nity Col­lege when the Swim­ming and Div­ing pro­gram was formed. He will grad­u­ate in the spring with a de­gree in en­gi­neer­ing and man­age­ment. He was also named a KCAC Cham­pion of Char­ac­ter. The re­cip­i­ents of this award show five val­ues: in­tegrity, re­spect, re­spon­si­bil­ity, sports­man­ship and ser­vant lead­er­ship. 

“It will be huge to bring back al­most our en­tire ros­ter,” Thomp­son said. “The next two years will be huge for our pro­gram, and I am ex­cited to see where our in­au­gural class can take us.” 

For more in­for­ma­tion on the Bethel Men’s and Wom­en’s Swim­ming and Div­ing team visit www.bupi­lots.com.