"New opportunities" is the message for The College of Wooster men's swimming and diving program heading into the 2026-27 season, and veteran head coach Rob Harrington has a "lot of enthusiasm behind that" throughout his program. Over half of the Fighting Scots' team is comprised of first-years and sophomores.

"We are going to be spending much of the fall semester looking at our lineup and finding out our strengths and weaknesses," shared Harrington. "We will address our needs throughout the course of the first half of the season."

One area that does not need addressing is the impact sophomore Hayden Price has already made on the program. Wooster's top returnee already holds one individual and two relay school records, netting those at the midseason Wooster Invitational, then bettering them all in the championship portion of the season.

"Hayden trained a lot over the summer and did some pretty impressive things with his club team," said Harrington. "He is already looking stronger than he was last year."

Behind Price, Harrington projects to see "a rotation of people come through those events," as the Scots work through what its lineup will look like come the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships in mid-February. Among the returnees, Harrington will look to junior Ethan Towle and junior Zach Cornberg to be leaders behind Price in the backstroke early in the season.

The emergence of senior Ryan Stokes in the breaststroke and individual medley events bodes well for Wooster's success. He is someone who "very much focused on his weaker strokes last season," shared Harrington, and that resulted in significant all-around improvements.

Towle projects to see an increased role in the backstroke and breaststroke and is someone Harrington's looking at to break a minute in the 100 breaststroke. Sophomore Gabe Bettross and senior Dillon Boespflug round out the returnees among the breaststrokers and individual medley swimmers.

Price and sophomore Zach Joyal are two Harrington looks at for leading the way in the individual medley events.

Sophomore Evan Hasenkampf qualified for the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association College National Open Water Championship as a first-year and returns to lead the distance freestyle group.

"Evan is very focused and is the core of our distance group," said Harrington. "He is ready to do big things right out the gate. You may see him swim some butterfly for us in dual meets."

Distance free as a whole is an "exciting group to have on the team," said Harrington. "There are so many opportunities for training and for success in dual meets and the championship meets."

Harrington will look to Cornberg, Joyal, sophomore Erich Lotter, and junior Eli Tansey to be the leaders among the returnees in the distance freestyle.

Senior Philipp Drappatz is one of Wooster's most versatile swimmers, as a leader in the distance freestyle and butterfly. He is one of several distance freestyle swimmers who provide strong contributions in the 200 butterfly.

"Philipp has done some great things in the past," said Harrington, on his senior who qualified for the Open Water Championship. "He is very motivated and trains very hard."

Senior Ethan Neuner is the sprint anchor for the Scots and was part of the team's Timken Natatorium record in the 400 freestyle relay.

"It was exciting to have Ethan part of pool record-setting relay teams last year," shared Harrington. "Ethan is ready to fill that role as a lead sprinter individually and as a relay team member."

Lots of new faces project to comprise the roles in the sprint freestyle events come the NCAC Championships. Among the returnees, the Scots will lean on sophomore Elliott Mainwaring and Tansey.

Diving is an area of strength for the Scots. Senior Chris Caldwell made the finals of the one-meter diving in each of the last two conference championships and placed within the top seven both times. First-years Collin McFarlane and Tavion Moore join the team as divers this fall.

"Chris is one of the best all-around athletes we have seen in a long time in our program," added Harrington. "The additions of Colin and Tavion are very exciting. Our diving potential is tremendous."

The first-year divers are part of an incoming class of nine that also includes sophomore transfer Kadin Rayford and first-years Canyon Gurr, Theo Lawrence, Alex Powell, Brendan Sulak, Michael Sullivan, and Evan Towle.

"Our incoming class has lots of opportunities to make an immediate impact," summed up Harrington. "We are excited about what this group can do."

Wooster's season starts at the Denison University Diving Invitational on Saturday, October 24, and the first dual meet is at Malone University on Saturday, October 31. Other meets of note, are the program's annual Wooster Invitational, which starts on December 3 and the NCAC Championships, which get underway at Denison on February 10.

"We are looking forward to our dual meets and seeing what our team is capable of," wrapped up Harrington. "With such a young program, there are a lot of unknowns."