Hampden-Sydney College’s (H-SC) swimming team has entered the new year with a 3-2 record in one-on-one meets, a title win at the Greensboro Invitational on Nov. 17-18 and a fourth-place finish among 10 teams at the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Relays on Oct. 13.

“I feel good,” Tigers Head Coach Betsy Leonard said, referring to her team’s performance so far this season. “I know that the ODAC is growing a ton, and so we have all these new men’s programs in the ODAC, and we’ll see how everybody shapes up when it comes to championship time. Roanoke’s pretty strong, Randolph’s coming in pretty strong too, and then (Washington and Lee University) W&L and Randolph-Macon (College), they are typically one and two in the ODAC Championship.”

H-SC placed third in the 2017-18 season and second in the 2016-17 campaign.

Leonard said she expects this year to be a little more difficult for her squad.

Fielding new men’s teams in the ODAC for the 2017-18 season were Roanoke College, Randolph College, Bridgewater College, Virginia Wesleyan University and Emory & Henry College, the coach noted. She added that the University of Lynchburg will have a men’s squad next season.

The Tigers take on the growing field this year with a roster that features six seniors, five freshmen, four sophomores and one junior.

“I’m going to lose a bunch of my seniors this year, which is going to hurt pretty bad,” Leonard said. “It’s the biggest graduating class I’ve had, so trying to bring in some new talent next year has proved to be a challenge. Especially with the new programs, everybody is looking everywhere in the ODAC and not just to the small number of teams that there were before. But that’s a good challenge to have, I guess.”

Hampden-Sydney’s seniors this season include Robert Brown, Adrian Cothren, Jack Dickerson, Hudson Elmore, Andrew Long and Brady Updike.

“The group of seniors we have right now is probably our strongest group of seniors that we’ve ever had,” Leonard said. “… We’ve got a few of those guys who are on the record board and have stayed on the record board for all their four years. So that’s when you know that you’ve got a good group …”

However, the Tigers have more going for them than just a strong group of upperclassmen.

“We do have some talented underclassmen, though, too, not to take anything away from them,” Leonard said. “It just seems that our program just keeps getting stronger and stronger, which is the way we want it. So hopefully that trend continues.”

She highlighted some individual standouts so far this season.

“The guys on the team call Woody Parsons, ‘the golden boy,’” Leonard said of one of the team’s freshmen. “He’s our first real distance swimmer coming in as a distance swimmer from high school. He’s going to be really, really good. He’s probably our strongest freshman. Our sophomores are great. We’ve got a really good group of them.”

Rather than pinpoint a No. 1 overall swimmer on the team, the coach found it easier to cite leaders in specific strokes.

“Woody Parsons — he’s definitely our best distance guy,” Leonard said, which will translate to the 500-yard and one-mile distances at the ODAC Championships. “Hudson Elmore — back and butterfly, both of those strokes he excels in. (Sophomore) Zach Stephan — butterfly and freestyle. Breaststroke — we’ve got Brady Updike and Jack Dickerson, who kind of go back and forth between who is the top guy there.”

“That pretty much covers all of the events,” the coach continued. “But then we have some guys who don’t specialize in certain things but are really good at anything. You can throw them into just about any event, and they do super well.”

Leonard noted that she expects H-SC to be among the top four finishers in the growing ODAC this year.

“I wouldn’t expect us to drop any lower than fourth,” she said. “If we do that, then we might need to do a little soul searching. But I would say second or third behind W&L, and then Randolph-Macon and Roanoke — those are our three really competitive teams right now, as far as we’re concerned.”

The Tigers are set to visit Randolph on Friday at 6 p.m., and they will take on Emory & Henry on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Sweet Briar College.