OKLAHOMA CITY (Sept. 22, 2021) – One goal of coaches is to build a healthy sense of competition within a team, and one thing required to do that is sufficient numbers of student-athletes. Entering his fifth season as Oklahoma Christian's swimming coach, Josh Davis believes he's finally there with OC's women's team.

With 28 swimmers on the roster – the highest in program history – the Eagles will open their season on Saturday afternoon, hosting the annual Sam Freas Invitational. OC will be the meet's sole host this season, as Oklahoma Baptist – whose former coach is honored in the event's name – has dropped its swimming programs.

In all but one stroke group, Davis believes his team's depth has been bolstered by a group of 14 newcomers, some of whom already are challenging veterans for spots on relay teams. Those healthy intrasquad battles only will help improve times in the long run, he said.

"To have a full squad of almost 30 is huge for us," Davis said. "Hopefully that will make our top 20 (swimmers) at the conference (meet) that much better. Before, we could take everybody there. But that's the nature of the beast – we get more people and the team gets faster. The competition will make us better."

Even with all the new swimmers on the roster, there's little doubt about who is most accomplished on the team. That would be Cheyenne Parks, a sophomore from Guthrie who earned All-America honors in 2020, is a three-time All-RMAC selection and two-time winner of the Scholar All-America award from the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America.

Parks will be leaned on heavily this season. She's one of the Eagles' best individual medley swimmers, both at 200 yards and 400 yards (she was the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference runner-up in the 400 IM in 2021). She's also a talented backstroker (she was an All-American in the 200 backstroke in 2020) and is probably OC's best option for butterfly legs in relays at this point, Davis said.

She's also a capable distance swimmer, as she showed last week by competing in the CSCAA Collegiate Open Water Championships, racing for 3.1 miles in a lake in Lawrence, Kan.

"She has a shot at winning events (at the conference meet) if she nails it," Davis said. "We still have not fully tapped her potential. There still is so much left in the tank. There is a lot of upside left in Cheyenne."

OC's other top returning butterfly swimmer is sophomore Hannah Matula, who made the C final in the 100 butterfly in last year's RMAC Championships, and junior Grace Hill could also step in and swim butterfly events if necessary.

In the individual medley, Hill joins Parks in providing the Eagles a strong 1-2 punch in the event, and Hill – the recipient of the 2021 Summit Award from the RMAC, recognizing the swimmer with the conference's top grade-point average – also is a strong distance freestyle swimmer.

Davis is excited about his group of backstrokers, which is particularly deep. Joining Parks in leading the group will be sophomore Julia Flores and freshman Vivian Pitsch and there is plenty of experience returning as well in junior Savanna Barth (a RMAC A finalist in the 200 backstroke in 2020) and senior Jillian Contich. Freshmen Megan Arendse, Madison Harless, Aspyn Osburn and Kaylee Ward could also contribute.

Senior Andrea Rogers and freshmen Hannah Day have been staging "epic battles" during the preseason in breaststroke events and Davis hopes that pair will "push each other to school records." Freshmen Jessica Lewis and Alista Richardson also will join the breaststroke unit.

OC lost veteran freestyle sprinter Jamie McGarrigle but Davis believes a young group of Eagles can fill the void. Returning freshmen Olivia Rollen and Jaiden Branstrom received valuable experience during last season and sophomore Eden Chiu-Pinheiro has posted career-best 50-yard freestyle times during the preseason. Sophomore Hope Hill provides yet another veteran, proven option and Davis also is excited about the potential of freshman Laura Byars.

The Eagles have an experienced distance group, led by sophomores Mallory Mead and Kayci McKinnon (who holds school records in the 200, 500, 1,000 and 1,650 freestyle) and juniors Maggie Farley and Gabrealla Badillo. Mead finished fifth in the 1,000 freestyle in the RMAC meet in February while Farley was 10th.

Other newcomers to the team include freestyle swimmers Shayle Woods, Rylee Schmidt, Kayla Roth and Rachael Pitsch.

The Eagles' schedule includes three home meets at the Mitch Park YMCA pool in Edmond, along with meets against fellow Division II programs Henderson State (Ark.), Ouachita Baptist (Ark.), William Jewell (Mo.) and powerful Drury (Mo.). The Eagles also will compete in a tri-meet at Division I Southern Methodist in Dallas and another dual at Incarnate Word in San Antonio.

For a third straight year, the RMAC Championships will be held in Grand Junction, Colo., and hosted by Colorado Mesa.

"Mesa is the big dog (in the RMAC), then Colorado Mines, and our dream is to get third, ahead of Colorado State-Pueblo and Western State, which will be really hard to do," Davis said. "But it's possible."