Mens’ Swimming: Proxmire, Cox Golden on Final Day of CC Championship

Complete Results

LANCASTER, Pa. – Senior Duncan Proxmire (McLean, Va./Langley) and junior Nick Cox (Purcellville, Va./Ponte Vedra) each claimed gold in their individual events to close out the final day of the Centennial Conference Championship at Franklin & Marshall College.

 
2022 Centennial Conference Championship Team Standings

 
Meet Highlights

• Gettysburg featured a 1-2 finish in the 1650 as Proxmire secured his first career gold medal and sophomore Luke McKenna (Collegeville, Pa./Spring-Ford Area) won the silver. A two-time runner-up in the event, Proxmire dominated the race from start-to-finish, showing no mercy to his opponents as he cleared his splits in the low to mid 29-second range before leaving everyone behind with sub-29 splits over the final 200 yards. His time of 15:54.86 bested his previous career best by exactly three seconds and hit an NCAA B cut. Situated in the lane next to Proxmire, McKenna displayed similar consistency to his teammate and finished seven seconds behind with a time of 16:01.89, marking another B cut and the fourth-fastest time in program history.
• After claiming the 100 back title with the first sub-50 time in school history on Saturday, Cox displayed more magic with a record-breaking performance in the 200 back. The junior went out in 24.79 in his first 50 and led by almost two seconds through 150 yards. He kept up the furious pace over the final 25 yards and touched the wall in a closing time of 1:48.62 to break the championship meet and program records. Cox also hit an NCAA B cut time for the second consecutive day and became the first Gettysburg swimmer to win both conference backstroke races since Matt McKenna ’95 in 1995.
• Senior Oliver Pickering (Millburn, N.J./Millburn) earned his second career silver medal in the 200 fly. Pickering dueled with Swarthmore’s Jeremy Rockaway with the duo matching their finish from the 2019 CC Championship. Rockaway set a new championship standard at 1:49.25, while Pickering finished in 1:52.53.
• Sophomore Charlie Cross (Charlottesville, Va./Albemarle) shaved nearly five seconds off his personal best with a sixth-place finish in an extremely fast heat in the 200 breaststroke. Each of the top five swimmers achieved NCAA qualifying times with Cross finishing right behind at 2:05.86. The time pushed the sophomore into second on Gettysburg’s all-time top 10.
• Freshman Mason Dillon (Hummelstown, Pa./Lower Dauphin) and sophomore Ben Fox (Howard Beach, N.Y./Scholars Academy) joined Pickering in the 200 fly finals. Dillon finished fifth in the race and moved into seventh in program history with a time of 1:56.66. Fox finished seventh overall with a time of 1:58.25 after logging the fifth-fastest time at Gettysburg in the prelims at 1:56.66.  
• Freshman Trey Mitchell (Rehoboth Beach, Del./Sussex Academy) and sophomore Jack Murphy (Potomac, Md./Winston Churchill) each won consolation heats on Sunday. Mitchell posted the top time in the B final of the 200 breast at 2:08.92, which marked the third-fastest time in program history. Murphy improved his PR time in the 200 back by going 1:55.54 to win the heat.
• As a team, Gettysburg finished third overall with 636 points. The Bullets totaled nine medals during the event, including three by Proxmire in the 200 free, 500 free, and 1650. Swarthmore won its third title since 2017 with 889 points, while defending champion Franklin & Marshall finished second with 816 points.

 
Next Up

The NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships are slated March 16-19 at IUPUI’s IU Natatorium in Indianapolis, Ind. Proxmire, McKenna, and Cox have achieved NCAA provisional qualifying times and will await the announcement of the field in the near future.

This story was originally posted on the Gettysburg College Website.