SBU Swimming Makes Waves and History with First-Ever Home Meet

Published 4:52 pm Tuesday, November 3, 2026

By Annie Thomas

Southwest Baptist University’s swim program reached a new milestone as the men’s and women’s teams hosted Ouachita Baptist in the first-ever collegiate home swim meet in SBU history on Friday, Oct. 23. The team celebrated the historic day with a capacity crowd that had spectators filling the bleachers, lining the pool deck and spilling out the door. Students, faculty, administrators, other SBU athletic teams, families and community members all joined the collection of fans as the Bearcat swimmers raised the energy on the deck and in the pool.

“There were so many who came to cheer us on and that the energy was so electric,” said SBU Head Coach Gavin Hagar. “I believe we created an electric, fun vibe that was a blast for us to race in. That was likely a hard environment for our competitors to compete in. That is an environment we want to re-create every time we race at home. It’s fun for us and our fans, and it’s challenging for our opponents.”

SBU split the day with the women claiming multiple event wins but coming up short in points against a strong OBU team while the men earned the win by more than 25 points over a preseason top 24 men’s team in what Hagar said is the SBU program’s biggest win. The Bearcats closed the meet with the sweep in the 200 freestyle relays for both the women’s and men’s teams before celebrating the end of a special day with cheers, prayer, team selfies and a water dump for their coach.

“Our team talk at the beginning of the meet was about racing with love in our hearts,” said Hagar. “To not let today be just another race day; let today be special. To be filled with love for all who sacrificed and to be filled with love of the journey that brought us here. To let that love fill us and motivate us through our racing. We’re so thankful for the community and the support they give us day in, day out. The meet day was honestly just another day of being loved on by the Bolivar and SBU community. It showed itself in a very public way, but they love on us regularly.

Arriving at this first home meet day required a multi-year process and the investment of the university, the athletic department and multiple program supporters. The pool that is currently housed in the Meyer Wellness Center has been a longtime fixture on the SBU campus. Originally sheltered under an inflatable dome known by locals as The Bubble, the pool facilities sat adjacent to the former SBU field house through the late 1990s when construction on the Meyer Wellness and Sports Center began in the early 2000s. Until recent years, the pool was used primarily for fitness and recreational swimming but the current natatorium now serves as the home training and competition pool for the NCAA DII SBU Bearcat men’s and women’s swim program, as well as, the Bolivar High School girls swim team who will host their first-ever home meet in December, and the year-round Kingdom youth swim club.

Prior to the May 2024 decision to start the SBU swim program, the Bolivar High School girls swim team began using the pool as a practice facility although it was not equipped to host sanctioned competitions. During the 2024-25 season, Hagar was hired and began recruiting and planning for SBU’s inaugural team. Startup funds allowed for the purchase of new flags, lanelines, starting blocks, and much of the current training equipment. Through friends and family fundraising efforts, the 2025-26 inaugural team was able to purchase the remaining equipment needed to host a meet this season, a year ahead of Hagar’s original goal.

In just the second year of the program, SBU swimming continues to gain momentum, out-pacing expectations and other similar start-up programs. In its inaugural season the program launched in 2025-26 with 34 recruits among the men’s and women’s teams, roughly 10 to 14 more than comparable start-up programs, according to Hagar. The coaching staff also added assistants Addi Barnes and Natalie Holt. Retaining 29 on the roster from year one while adding 20 new freshmen and transfers this season, Hagar hopes to build to 58-60 swimmers by the program’s third season in 2027-28. His current roster includes swimmers who are homegrown, regional, nationwide and even international.

“We don’t recruit for skills or territory per say,” said Hagar, “we recruit for culture and we pray over our recruiting process. We let God determine the skill sets and location of our recruits. He has been good and has blessed us with a lot of talented athletes from all across the country and the globe!”

While college athletes often enter longstanding programs with histories of big wins, team titles, and a long list of champions and record breakers, some others are the forerunners who cast the vision and build the foundation of what they hope will someday become an elite program. Members of the SBU men’s and women’s swim team are making waves early in the program while working to ensure their impact is felt in and out of the pool for years to come.

“I believe this program can establish itself as a nationally renowned program that is excellent in swimming, known for developing well-rounded people and our unashamed love for Jesus,” said Hagar. “I’m confident both the men’s and women’s program can establish themselves as fixtures as nationally ranked top 25 programs.”

The Bearcats compete in the Great Lakes Valley Conference where most of the GLVC swim programs are ranked in the top 30 in the country. With a team primarily of freshmen and sophomores, Hagar said his swimmers are out-performing his expectations this season.

“We are already seeing a rise in confidence with the majority of our team being sophomores,” said Hagar. “That confidence will allow us to compete with several GLVC teams in the meets to come. As we progress into a more fully formed team competing in the GLVC against some of the best athletes in the nation is only going to have positive impacts on us. Here in these first two years, so long as we can focus on our process and progressing at our rate, I think we will find ourselves closing the gap quicker than our competition expects.”

Still, as the Bearcats build a presence in the pool, they aren’t just looking to make a name for themselves.

“We talk a lot about the team not belonging to any of us but to the Lord,” said Hagar. “We want this to be a process oriented team, not a results oriented team. A successful program is one that, in short, honors God in our victory and our struggle. Long version, is to have each of our athletes see the fruit of living according to our team pillars during their time at SBU and beyond: To honor God, fail at full speed, to progress in all things, to pray big, to be a careful and grateful swim family, to believe winning is a process not a result, to trust God.

The Bearcats will host their next home meet on Friday, Jan. 22.