Oilers Dominate All-Conference Awards

The University of Findlay men and women's swimming and diving teams swept the major Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) awards as the league office unveiled their postseason accolades on March 23.

Ben Rath was tabbed the G-MAC Male Athlete of the Year while Hanna Cederholm captured Female Athlete of the Year honors. In addition, head coach Andrew Makepeace was rewarded for his performance and tabbed the Men and Women's Swimming and Diving Coach of the Year.

Rath was also the G-MAC/MEC Championship Swimmer of the Meet, marking a full sweep for the senior in the pool of the top all-conference individual honors. He won four different individual events at the combined conference meet. Rath had the top time between both leagues in the 500 freestyle, 1,000 freestyle 1,650 freestyle while also recording the second-best time in the 200 freestyle and a top-10 mark in the 100 freestyle.

Cederholm, Just a sophomore, boasted the top G-MAC/MEC season times in the both the 100 butterfly and 200 IM. She won both of those events at the G-MAC/MEC Championship while also helping the Oilers add team points with wins in the 200 medley relay, 200 freestyle relay and 400 medley relay. Cederholm helped the Findlay women's 400-yard medley relay grouping take its place on the awards podium for NCAA second team All-American honors. They finished 13th in the nation with their finals time of 3:45.96.

Makepeace had the men's and women's programs positioned in the national rankings and celebrated student-athletes being named All-Americans at nationals. Makepeace was also named the Women's Coach of the Meet at the conference championships.

Individually, the men's team swept the all-conference awards as all nine spots were filled by Oilers. Those included: Ben Rath, Trent Williams, Trae Gulgin, Isaac Stretch, Janko Radmanovic, Dalton Shevlin, Conner Whitaker, Parker Bull and Mark Billeaud.

The Oilers also had Nathan Bourne earn second team all-conference accolades while Tyler Adkins, Andrew Gray and Alex Matthews were tabbed third team all-league.

On the women's side, Sydney Zimdars, Hanna Cederholm, Amanda Stiegal, Kathryn Samuelson, Katy Kouvaris, Lauren Blanchard, Alicia Solis, Julia Snell, Emma Barnes, Sarah Miles, Hannah May and Jenna Dasher all captured first team all-conference honors. The Oilers had 12 of the 13 first team all-conference picks.

Ashton Klopp was also rewarded for her performance and was named third team all-league.