PHILADELPHIA - Andrew Karpenko and
Ben Freeman were named to the PhillySIDA Academic All-Area Men's Swimming Team on Monday by the Philadelphia Sports Information Directors Association (PhillySIDA). Karpenko garnered another award as the sophomore was named the PhillySIDA Academic All-Area Men's Swimming Performer of the Year.
Karpenko garnered Performer of the Year accolades after being named the Most Outstanding Performer and Rookie of the Year at the 2022 Centennial Conference Championships. He earned All-Centennial First Team honors in the 200-yard individual medley, 100-yard breaststroke, and 200-yard breaststroke. Karpenko's winning times of 1:49.18 (200 IM), 54.12 (100 breast), and 2:00.61 (200 breast) were all conference records.
In addition to his first-place performances, Karpenko received All-Centennial Honorable Mention as a member of the 200 medley, 400 medley, and 400 freestyle relays, all of which touched second. His efforts led the Garnet to the team title, their third in the last five seasons. Karpenko went on to compete in three events at the NCAA Division III Championships, earning All-America honors in all of them. He became the first Swarthmore swimmer to collect multiple individual All-America awards in the same season since 2000. Karpenko holds the Swarthmore school records in the 50 breaststroke, 100 breaststroke, 200 breaststroke, and 200 individual medley. He was named to the 2022 Centennial Conference Academic Honor Roll.
Freeman gathered gold in the 500-free at the 2022 Centennial Conference Championships. The sophomore also gained All-Centennial Honorable Mention honors in the 800-free relay, 400-medley relay and 200-free. On November 8th, 2021, Freeman was named the Centennial Conference Swimmer of the Week. At the D3 Shootout, Freeman finished the 200 freestyle in a time of 1:40.01, which at the time ranked him sixth in all of Division III, third on Swarthmore's all-time list, and ranks as the eighth-fastest mark in Centennial history. With a time of 1:39.21 at the Centennial Conference Championships, Freeman moved up to second on the Garnet All-Time list in the 200-free. He ranks second on the list in the 500-free with a time of 4:31.62.
The 2021-22 PhillySIDA Academic All-Area Men's Swimming & Diving Team includes student-athletes from six different institutions across all three NCAA divisions. Drexel (Paris Raptis, Kevin Spear), Swarthmore (
Ben Freeman,
Andrew Karpenko), Villanova (Michael Ackert, Nolan Danus), and West Chester (Collin Petit, Carter Smith) all produced multiple selections. The squad also features Cabrini's Tommy Ronayne and Rowan's Kevin Yanagisawa. Raptis was the lone repeat honoree, having previously earned Academic All-Area distinction in 2019-20.
