To the outside observer, the Washington and Lee men’s and women’s swim teams possess striking similarities. In addition to having three wins and one loss to national powerhouse Carnegie Mellon, they both have dominated the ODAC for the past decade and have aspirations to do so in 2026.
“Heading into the season, we look to continue our streak of ODAC wins, as well as send all of our relays to NCAAs,” said Cooper Tinsley, ’28.
“Our team goal is always to win ODACs and perform well at our dual meets throughout our season,” said Camlyn Belle, ’28.
Tenra Adams, ’28, added, “One of our biggest goals this season is to be the loudest team on deck and bring a positive and uplifting energy to both practice and meets.”
Swimmers on the women’s team say they’re extremely satisfied with their start to the season.
“A 3-1 start feels great and shows that all the work we’ve put in is paying off,” Celia Bredehoeft, ’28, the reigning ODAC champion in the 1650 Freestyle and ODAC Athlete of the week against Carnegie Mellon, said. “It’s given us a lot of confidence and momentum heading into the rest of the season.”
Adams agreed. “I think we are very happy where we are at right now,” she said. “Our training has been tough and being able to perform well despite that is a great feeling.”
While the women’s team returns plenty of success, two ODAC championship event winners and the 2025 swimmer of the meet award winner graduated. To replace these and other losses to graduation, the team has brought in 10 first-years to replace the graduates’ production.
Multiple swimmers on the team praised the first years’ contributions, energy and support for the upperclassmen, which bodes well for the team’s hopes of achieving Adams’ aforementioned goal for the season and being successful.
On the men’s side, although the team brought in a class of only three swimmers, their contributions have been significant.
“This year’s freshmen have integrated really well. They’ve brought depth across all strokes and have added a lot of energy to the team,” said George Glassner, ’28. “Whether it’s in practice intensity or meet performance, they’ve made an impact early and continue to grow every week.”
The men’s team is also happy with their start to the season.
“A 3-1 start is a solid place to be,” Glassner said. “We’ve shown flashes of what we can be, and we’ve also identified areas that still need work. Given the level of training we’re under right now, it’s encouraging to see the team stepping up and racing tough.”
Tinsley echoed Glassner’s mostly positive outlook and emphasized the team’s potential for improvement.
He said, “We knew that Carnegie Mellon was going to be a tough meet, they are highly ranked and we were missing some of our best swimmers to illness and injury. We’ve taken care of business against our other opponents, but that doesn’t mean there’s not room to improve.”
Tinsley added that strong upperclassmen leadership and solid team culture are some of the team’s strongest attributes.
While the men’s team is on track for another successful season, they lost a significant amount of production from last season including four ODAC first-team selections.
Luckily, they still have the ODAC’s top two 100 freestyle swimmers from the past season in Leighton Chapman ’27 and Dalton Jobe ’26, aside from many others with high finishes.
For approximately the next month, both the men’s and women’s teams will take a break from competition that started after the RMC Invite meet on November 23. Coming out of the break, the teams will head to Baltimore to face their highest ranked opponent of the season, Johns Hopkins.
Almost exactly a month later, the Generals will travel to Greensboro to compete in their most anticipated meet of the year: ODACs. Although the Generals have history on their side, they know complacency is their enemy.
“We have to remind ourselves that past accomplishments don’t win future meets,” said Tinsley.
