Men’s Swimming Coach Greg Rhodenbaugh Newsletter

[Water Pony]

To Ponyfans:

I just received Greg’s Letter to SMU Swimming & Diving Alumni and thought Ponyfans might value his update, including the team’s reaction to the recent loss of former Coach Eddie Sinnott.

Editorially the Men’s Team has made dramatic progress under Coach Greg, which he has recapped in his message. The number of qualifying swimmers and, very importantly, relays is very encouraging. Here is Newsletter:

“ Dear Alumni,

So much has happened in the last week and a half. I feel like I need to send two or three different emails out to you to catch you up. That being said, we will try and get all the information to you in one.

Last week we had our conference championship meet. It was the first time for us to be in the Atlantic Sun conference. It is also our last year to be in the Atlantic Sun conference. We went into the meet with high expectations, but knowing we had some sickness that we were battling.

It was nice to have six men’s teams in a conference championship after what we have gone through the last four years in the AAC. Here are some great highlights from our conference championship win and I will include those at the end of this email.

While we were in Knoxville Tennessee preparing for the ASUN championship meet, we got word of Eddie Sinnott’s passing. Although we knew this news was coming soon, the quickness and finality of it hit hard. Sharing the news with the team that night was a solemn time as the team all had found memories of Eddie. But through the quietness and teary eyes, we carried sickness and sorrow into competition for the next 4 days. The whole time picturing Eddie not watching the meet by MeetMobile and streaming on ESPN, but watching it live from a higher vantage point in full color and clarity.

Hopefully by now you have heard that we will be celebrating Eddie on March 15 at 2 PM at the IPC on the SMU campus. We hope anyone that can make plans to join the Sinnott’s and SMU community to help us celebrate Eddie. Before we Celebrate Eddie at the IPC, we will have a morning swim at SMU Holt Hickman Outdoor Pool, including some “Classic Eddie” shimmy bobs – this will take place at 10am. After the service we will adjourn to The Robson & Lindley Aquatics Center for reception to continue stories and memories of Eddie’s life.

The resilience that the team showed last week was a testament to their determination and their training this season as they brought home another conference championship.

The following is a breakdown of what was accomplished last week:

4th Consecutive Conference Championship
15 of our 20 athletes received All-Conference honors (All conference is placing top 3 in an event)
37 Total All-Conference honors
17 wins
8 new school records at the meet (3 of which were relay records)
31 new Top 10 Times across all the events at the meet
19 swimmers achieving 48 NCAA “B” cuts

Swimmer of the Year: Jack Hoagland
Freshman of the year: Kristaps Mikelsons
Divers of the year: Tyler Coffey and John Dymond
Diving Coach of the Year: Darian Schmidt
Swimming Coach of the Year: Greg Rhodenbaugh

We will be going to a last chance meet down at Texas A&M next weekend to try and get 1 or 2 more individual cuts for NCAA’s. As it stands now, we feel we will take around 8 to 10 swimmers to NCAA’s this year and be competing in individual and relay events.

As always thanks for your support and continued interest in SMU Swimming and Diving. I hope to see you soon at Eddie’s Celebration March 15th.

Go Mustangs!!!

Greg Rhodenbaugh
Head Men’s Coach
SMU Swimming & Diving”