Luke Schwenk, a sophomore from Annapolis, MD, has concluded his first-ever trip to the NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships with a 15th-place finish in the 100 freestyle and his second Honorable Mention All-America award.
Schwenk entered the day’s preliminaries for the 100-freestyle seeded ninth with his NCAA B cut of 44.44, which he set at the 2023 Atlantic East Conference Championships. He swam in Heat 3 of five heats, finishing fourth in his heat with a time of 44.91 and earning a spot in the evening’s consolation finals.
Swimming in the outside lane (Lane 1), Schwenk shaved off 0.04 seconds from his preliminary time to take seventh place in the consolation finals for 15th overall and collect his second Honorable Mention All-America award.
When the NCAA revealed the qualification lists for the NCAA Championships on February 22, Schwenk became the first Seahawk male swimmer to qualify for NCAAs, following in the footsteps of eight St. Mary’s female swimmers before him.
Schwenk continued to make history this week at the Greensboro Aquatic Center – the site of this year’s NCAA Championships – by being the first male swimmer at St. Mary’s College to garner not only the first, but also the second, All-America award for the men’s swimming program with Wednesday’s (March 15) 14th-place finish in the 50 freestyle and Saturday’s 15th-place finish.
He joins Brie (McDowell) Porter ’09 as the only Seahawk swimmers with All-America honors. Porter finished her three-year Seahawk career with five All-America awards.
Schwenk’s impressive sophomore campaign ends with two Honorable Mention All-America awards, the Atlantic East Conference Swimmer of the Year honor, three Atlantic East individual championship titles, four NCAA B cuts, and numerous school, conference, conference championship meet, and pool records.