2019-20 Great Midwest All-Conference Team (PDF)
Men's Records (PDF)
Women's Records (PDF)
INDIANAPOLIS – By virtue of placement at the combined championship meet, Great Midwest Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving All-Conference honors for the 2019-20 season were announced on Wednesday.
A total of 68 student-athletes from the Great Midwest landed first team or honorable mention all-conference honors.
The conference’s third season with the sport culminated with the NCAA Division II Championship meet hosted by Lake Erie earlier this month. The national showcase was limited to one day of competition with all NCAA Winter and Spring Championships canceled due to COVID-19.
The Great Midwest coaches also voted on end-of-the-year awards that are different from athlete of the meet awards presented in Canton, Ohio, with Mountain East Conference student-athletes also in the mix for consideration.
The top Great Midwest finisher, individual or relay, was awarded first team all-conference honors. The second and third-place finishers in each event were named to the honorable mention all-conference team. The overall top performance from a student-athlete was prioritized regardless of individual or relay format.
Findlay’s men won the combined championship title for the third consecutive season while Hillsdale’s women captured its first program victory. Twelve different meet records were set by Great Midwest swimmers/divers on the men’s side and five more meet records were shattered by the women’s competitors from the league.
In addition, five overall conference records were broken by the men and two were reset by the women.
It was the Malone men who had the most student-athletes on the Great Midwest All-Conference Team. Eleven of the 12 selections by the Pioneers landed either second or third place by qualifying in the finals of their respective events.
Findlay had the most first-team selections with nine and the Oilers had a very close 11 student-athletes on this year’s all-conference team.
Malone senior Nick Wertz captured the G-MAC/MEC title in the 1,650 freestyle to put a feather in his cap to close out his career.
Hillsdale and Findlay each tied with 12 all-conference team honorees on this year’s women’s list.
The individual awards were mirrored very closely by the hardware handed out at the G-MAC/MEC Championship Meet in February. The Great Midwest Men’s Coach of the Year was Findlay’s Andrew Makepeace as his program made it three consecutive combined conference and outright conference title performances.
Makepeace also helped qualify five of his men’s swimmers to nationals, where one relay team was able to score All-American honors in the time allowed.
One of his dynamic student-athletes was Tim Stollings, who swept Great Midwest Athlete and Freshman of the Year honors. Stollings will need to clear more room in his collection after also winning both awards at the combined championship meet hosted by Malone.
Stollings was the top seed at nationals in the 100 butterfly but was unable to compete in the finals after placing seventh in the prelims with a 47.37 before the meet was halted on Day 2.
Hillsdale’s Kurt Kirner was recognized by his peers as the Great Midwest Women’s Coach of the Year after guiding the Chargers to their first conference championship. The Chargers won four different events (500 freestyle, 200 backstroke, 800 freestyle relay, 400 IM) as part of their championship run.
One of Kirner’s standouts was Leah Tunney as she swept Great Midwest Freshman of the Year status. Her first season in the books included two conference athlete of the week selections and she was the 500 freestyle champ in Canton.
Tunney owns the Great Midwest records in the 500 and 1,000 freestyle and is second all-time in the 1,650 freestyle.
The Great Midwest Women’s Athlete of the Year was Findlay senior Hanna Cederholm. The Swedish product had a hand in six different event wins at the G-MAC/MEC Championships and was crowned All-American in the 200 medley relay on Day 1 of the NCAA finals.
Cederholm was also slated to compete in the 100 and 200 breaststroke and 200 IM before the national meet was closed down.