![\"The](\"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2_mmorgan_150326_6274_ret-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Swim coach Brian Bishop equated it to the \u201cMiracle on Ice\u201d\u2014the historic Olympic ice hockey win in 1980 when a youthful U.S. squad pulled off an improbable 4\u20133 victory over a Soviet squad that was labeled the greatest hockey team in the world.<\/p>\n
In this version, The College of New Jersey\u2019s 800-freestyle relay team assumed the role of the U.S. and Kenyon College the mighty Soviets. There was no hockey rink in this faceoff, but instead, a pool of water, eight starting blocks, and eight lanes.<\/p>\n
Entering the event at the 2015 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving National Championships in Shenandoah, Texas, the Lions were a considerable underdog to the Lords. Even that may be an understatement: TCNJ\u2019s seed time was more than seven seconds slower than Kenyon\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn paper, we had no earthly reason to think we could beat them,\u201d says Bishop. \u201cThey had the two-time national champion in the 200-free leading off, a 200-free All-American swimming second, and another freestyle champion anchoring. On paper, we had no chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
What couldn\u2019t be captured on a preliminary heat sheet\u2014intangibles like heart, tenacity, and a will to win\u2014made the difference. Ryan Gajdzisz \u201917, Brett Pedersen \u201915, Scott Scott Vitabile \u201917, and Jason Ivins \u201917 all swam the fastest 200 meters of their lives.<\/p>\n
The following night, the Lions found themselves in a much different role. Joseph Dunn \u201916, Brian Perez \u201915, Vitabile, and Pedersen suited up in the final event of the 2015 championships\u2014the 400-free relay, which they won in 2014\u2014and launched what was arguably the most thrilling race of the week. When Pedersen touched the wall at the finish, the Lions\u2019 time of 2:57.85 (a program record) was identical to that of the University of Chicago. TCNJ defended its national title with a shared first-place finish.<\/p>\n
\u2014Mark Gola<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Epic relays score TCNJ two national NCAA championships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,77,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lions-roar","category-summer-2015","category-on-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}