Men’s swimming sends four to national championships
By Mia Gallagher · Sports Editor
After a successful 2025-2026 regular season and dominant PAC championship performance, four Grove City College men’s swimmers qualified and competed at the 2026 NCAA Division III Championships.
These four swimmers — senior Caleb Einolf, freshman George Witte and juniors Owen Hancock and Bryce Pope — certainly left their mark at the championship meet, finishing 18th overall in the team standings with 53 points. This phenomenal performance marks the Wolverines’ highest finish at the national championships since 2009.
But beyond this team performance, these four swimmers left the championship meet with multiple All-America honors to show for their efforts, qualifying for consolation finals in both of their relay events.
Einolf concludes his swimming career with six NCAA Division III All-American honors — four individual and two relay — and multiple program and PAC records to his name. Reflecting on these accomplishments, Einolf shares that he is most proud of his relay teams’ efforts:
“Becoming an All-American is awesome, but I’m most proud of our relay team. Since my freshman year, our goal was to qualify a relay for NCAAs, so finally doing that was really amazing,” Einolf said. “Qualifying a relay for NCAAs is especially competitive, so accomplishing that is a testament to the quality work we put in and to the quality of our program.”
Grove City opened up their four-day stint at NCAAs with a 16th-place finish in the 400 medley relay prelims on March 18, allowing them to qualify for the consolation final that evening. At finals, the quartet improved for a 15th-place finish with a time of three minutes, 17.15 seconds — good for a program record and NCAA All-American Honorable Mention accolades.
The quartet then went on to qualify for and win the 200-medley relay consolation final on March 20, placing ninth overall and a school record-breaking time of one minute, 28.02 seconds. They then concluded their collective NCAA run with a 20th-place finish in the 400 free relay final on March 21.
Individually, Einolf won his consolation final for the 100 butterfly with a time of 47.63, placing ninth overall. He also added an eighth-place finish in the 100 breaststroke final.
Hancock earned his first individual All-American honor with a sixth-place finish in the 100 butterfly final, posting a time of 47.79. He also competed in the 100 backstroke prelims and placed 31st overall.
“It was nice to be able to finally put a result to the hard work that we did not just this year, but over the last couple years as a whole. The team comradery and relationships are definitely more important than any results we achieve, but it was rewarding to qualify for NCAA’s and achieve All-American honors after I came up short the past few years,” Hancock said.
With Einolf being the only member of this successful quartet graduating, the 2026-2027 season looks bright for Grove City College men’s swimming.
“I hope our NCAA accomplishments inspire the next classes of swimmers to set challenging goals for themselves. Beyond that, I want my fellow teammates to know that it is a blessing to be able to train hard every day for their sport, and to enjoy the process,” Einolf said.
