Swart, Cox & Madara make Division I commitments for diving & swimming
By RICHIE HALL
Quick! Name an Indiana high school swimming and diving program that has three Division I athletes on its roster.
If you live in the Indianapolis area, several schools come to mind, including one in southern Hamilton County that has won a whole bunch of state championships. There’s also a school in the northern part of the county that can say it has three D-I signees as of this week.
Hamilton Heights celebrated that achievement on Wednesday as its two history-making divers on the boys team and a senior leader of its girls team put their signatures on paper. Ethan Swart, last year’s diving state champion, committed to Auburn University, while his teammate and state runner-up Nathan Cox signed with Virginia Tech. Meanwhile, two-time state qualifier Teegan Madara has committed to Xavier University.
Campus feeling
When it came down to making their decisions, both Swart and Cox said that the look of their respective school’s campuses was one of the factors.
“When I took my visit, I really liked the campus and the way it was placed out,” said Swart. “It was a big campus, but everything was together. You got the big campus feel, but it was all put together at a small school.”
Swart is leaning towards studying business at Auburn – “sports management, business marketing,” he said. He called the academics “really good,” and found his interest sparked by the Tigers’ new diving coach, John Fox, who took over this summer after longtime coach Jeff Shaffer retired after 24 years.
“He really sparked my interest because I’ve heard a lot of good things from him,” said Swart. “I just know the diving program in general with Jeff was really good, so I know John Fox is going to come in there and just make it a lot better.”
Cox said his choice of Virginia Tech came down to the same reason as his teammate’s choice of school.
“When I went there, the campus just stood out to me out of all the other colleges that I visited,” said Cox. He enjoyed the atmosphere, saying that everyone is “super connected.”
“Talking to the coach and the diving team, I really felt that I’d fit in and I could really bond with them, and I felt like it was someplace that I could call home for the next four years,” said Cox, who plans to study engineering. He also was impressed by the Hokies’ aquatic facilities, dryland training and medical facilities, calling them “top notch.”
Working the way up
Swart and Cox have been top-notch divers during their time as Hamilton Heights Huskies. Cox is a three-time state qualifier, having placed 13th as a freshman and sixth as a sophomore.
Meanwhile, Swart was working his way up the ladder. He placed seventh in the sectional as a freshman, then was fifth at sectional in his sophomore year, just missing advancement to the regional.
Swart said it took him “a while to get up to the type of skill I am at now. My freshman year and sophomore year, I was close, but I wasn’t close enough.”
It all came together in his junior year. At the Hamilton Southeastern sectional, Cox finished first while Swart was third, sending them both to the regional at Fishers. Cox placed third and Swart was fourth at the regional, but since the top eight go from regional to state, there was no worry about advancement.
Once at state, the two Huskies battled with two other qualifiers out of the Southeastern sectional, the Tigers’ Jacob Schade and Oak Hill’s Grant Cates. Cox was leading by 14 points in the semifinals, but Swart surged to the top during the final three dives, scoring 512.15 points. Cox totaled 503.65.
“Sectional’s going to be very difficult for us because it hasn’t changed and it won’t change,” said Swart. “It’s just going to really be up to how well we perform.”
“Only four go to regionals and there’s five or six divers that have an opportunity,” said Cox.
Getting along
Madara is a two-time state qualifier for Heights. She swam at state her sophomore year, placing 21st in the individual medley and 22nd in the 500 freestyle.
In her junior try at state, Madara improved her place in both events. She took 12th in the 500 free, scoring five team points for the Huskies and setting a new school record time of 5 minutes, 3.36 seconds. Madara also moved up in the IM, placing 19th.
“It’s really cool, but it’s also scary knowing that I’m leaving next year,” said Madara. “My little sister’s a freshman.” Ayla Madara is already making an impact for the Heights team.
Teegan Madara said she went on “multiple visits” to Xavier, where she spent several nights with the swimmers on the Musketeers team and got along with them well.
“Their academics are really good,” said Madara. “I want to go into nursing, so their nursing program was really good.”
So proud of these awesome kids Especially Nathan who I nannied for 16+years.