Haugen’s 3 WC program records secure him OAC Swimmer of the Week honors

The Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) announced their Athletes of the Week for the week of Nov. 18-24 Monday afternoon, and for the third time in his Wilmington Quakers career, junior Sondre Haugen was named the OAC Men’s Swimmer of the Week.

Haugen was named the OAC Swimmer of the Week twice last season (Nov. 13, 2023 and Jan. 15, 2024), and this is his first time during the 2024-25 campaign.

Haugen (Kristiansand, Norway/Kristiansand Katedral Gimle) had an incredible weekend for Wilmington at the Corbiere-Merion Invitational, where Wilmington won as a team, on Saturday and Sunday. He won four individual events, helped win two relay events, and set two individual program records, while helping to set one relay program record.

He began his weekend on Saturday in the 100 Yard Butterfly with a win and a time of 50.77 seconds. This broke his own program record of 51.69 seconds.

Haugen followed this up with a relay win in the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay, where he, senior Austin Reed, sophomore Jo Pedersen and junior John Good won the event in 3:10.81. Haugen swam the quickest leg of the race for the Quakers at 46.29 seconds.

In the 100 Yard Freestyle, Haugen won by over two seconds with a time of 46.22 seconds. His lone loss of the weekend came in the 800 Yard Freestyle Relay, where he, Good, Reed and sophomore Nathan Duerk swam a time of 7:24.87 to finish in second place.

Despite the loss, Haugen swam his lead leg in 1:41.16, which set a new program record for the 200 Yard Freestyle. The previous record was held by himself and David Hawk at 1:42.19.

His next event was the 400 Yard Medley Relay, where he, Good, sophomore Adam Moneypenny and Pedersen won the race in a time of 3:30.58, which set a new program record in the event. The previous record was held since 2013-14, where Michael Spraul, Corbin Hellwarth, Erik Spraul and David Hawk finished in 3:31.52.

The final two events Haugen competed in were the shortest freestyle event and longest freestyle event, showing the versatility he has as a swimmer. He won the 50-Yard Freestyle with a time of 21.75 seconds before blowing the field away in the 1650-Yard Freestyle in 16:30.78, winning by nearly a minute and a half.

Haugen and the Quakers return to action in a tri-match that includes Heidelberg University and Anderson University (Ind.), at 1:00 P.M. on Saturday, Jan. 11 in the Wilmington Natatorium.

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