2026-27 PREVIEW: Men's Swimming

9/21/2026 10:00:00 PM

By: Bill Morgal, sports information director

2026 SCHEDULE

2026 ROSTER

The 2026-27 Men's Swimming Senior Class (L-R: Robbie Ferlick, Connor Ludwig, Mason Koeth, Cooper Mercer, Luke Roettger)

The Shippensburg University men's swimming team begins its dual meet schedule at 5 p.m. Wednesday when it hosts Kutztown for a friendly at Donald N. Miller Pool.

It is the first of five dual meets in a seven-week stretch for the Raiders that concludes with a Nov. 6 matchup against Clarion.

SU will be home for four of those dual meets. The team's only road trip between now and the week before Thanksgiving is an evening sojourn to IUP on October 12.

The two big midseason meets for which the Raiders will train and “taper” for remain the F&M Invitational (November 20-22) and the Gettysburg Invitational (December 4-5).

After the holidays, SU will continue its annual tradition of a dual meet with Edinboro on January 8 before hosting Dickinson for Senior Day on January 22.

The PSAC Championships return to Carlisle this season and will be held at the same location where they were formerly – what was Keystone Aquatics is now the Carlisle YMCA Aquatics Center (103 Midway Drive, Carlisle PA 17015).

Right now we're really focused on getting our yardage back up, getting back to full speed, and understanding what we need to be doing for the future. A lot of drills, a lot of technique, and as the season goes on we'll up the yardage. It'll be a good starting point right now with the dual meets.

Robbie Ferlick (Sr. • Harleysville, Pa.)

It's been a lot different. Our yardage has been going up very high, very fast, and Coach Andrew has been pushing us hard every single practice. He's been splitting up the practices throughout the week, groups, stations, and different things to work on, which I think us very beneficial for the team.

Robbie Ferlick (Sr. • Harleysville, Pa.)

The class breakdown of the 2026-27 roster is listed below. It is using the “traditional” eligibility model.

Shippensburg is led by head coach Andrew Hale ‘23, a 19-time PSAC individual place winner and six-time All-PSAC (Top 3) performer with the Raiders who took the reins in May following the retirement of Tim Verge ’89.

Hale enters his first season as a head coach after serving as an assistant coach for the last three years (2025-26 at Clarion under Brehan Kelley, 2023-24 and 2024-25 at Millersville under former Raider Evan Anthony '19).

Alyssa Brown, who completed her eligibility with the Raiders last season, remains with the team after being hired as the assistant coach earlier this month. Kiran George will be serving as a student assistant coach.

The men have been great. Coming in, they are 100 percent ready to go. I think they saw what they were capable of last year, especially our top earners at PSACs. They have some big goals they want to accomplish this year individually, but also relays and as a team, points-wise, at the conference meet.

- head coach Andrew Hale '23

My big core value is always respect. Not just toward me or (assistant coach) Alyssa, but other team members, men and women. You're not going to be best friends with every single person you work with, you're not going to be best friends with every single person you swim with. It's about respecting everyone on the team, working toward the same goal, which I think has really been eye-opening for them and really helped our team culture.

- head coach Andrew Hale '23

NOTES FOR 2026-27:

• Shippensburg has seven returning PSAC individual place winners from last season, highlighted by 100-yard butterfly school record holder Josh Einolf. The Raider junior set the mark (49.06 seconds) at last year's conference championships and placed fifth in the finals. The effort came despite battling injury and illness in the week leading up to last year's league meet.

• Within the last two years - SU has broken two of its longstanding relay records that had been in place for more than 30 years. Three members of each relay remain in the fold. The 200-yard freestyle relay record (1:22.42), set at last year's conference meet, will need a new opening leg after the graduation of Kevin Noldy but returns senior Robbie Ferlick, senior Connor Ludwig and senior Mason Koeth. The 200-yard medley relay record (1:32.16), set two seasons ago, featured Koeth, Einolf and Ferlick.

• Alex Kissinger is the only other junior on the roster besides Einolf and enters the season having won the consolation ‘B’ final of the 200-yard butterfly last season. He ranks eighth in school history in the 100-yard butterfly (50.84) and 10th in the 200-yard butterfly (1:54.26).

• Koeth, who placed 10th in the 200-yard freestyle last season, enters his senior season ranked among the all-time Top 10 in five individual events in school history. He is the school-record holder in the 200-yard freestyle (1:40.25 at the 2024 PSAC Championships) while ranking third in the 100-yard backstroke (51.46), third in the 100-yard butterfly (50.17), fourth in the 100-yard freestyle (46.14) and eighth in the 50-yard freestyle (21.12). He is 11th in the 200-yard IM (1:55.45).

• Sophomore Ezekiel Eberly burst onto the scene last season after joining the squad in January by placing 10th in the 100-yard backstroke and 13th in the 200-yard backstroke - efforts that rank him third all-time in school history for each event.

• Ferlick placed 12th in the 50-yard freestyle and 15th in the 100-yard freestyle last season. He has scored in the 50-yard freestyle at the conference meet in each of his three seasons. He ranks second in school history in both the 50-yard freestyle (20.72) and the 100-yard freestyle (45.62).

• Ian Deck and Joe Herman also posted place-winning performances last season in their debut seasons with the Raiders. Deck finished 13th in the 500-yard freestyle and 14th in the 1,650-yard freestyle, while Herman swam 16th in the 200-yard backstroke. His PR last season in the 100-yard butterfly, 51.17 seconds, ranks ninth in school history.

2026 Schedule