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Six Captains Named for 2020-21 Season

NOTRE DAME, Indiana — In anticipation of the 2020-21 season, head coach Mike Litzinger has announced six senior captains for the Notre Dame Swim & Dive squads. JP Becker, Will Cumberland and Sadler McKeen will head the men’s team, while Lindsay Stone, Kelly Straub and Rachel Wittmer will be at the helm of the women’s team. 

“As we begin a season that will present unique opportunities and challenges for our student-athletes, I am confident that our captains will guide their teammates and peers to success,” Litzinger expressed. “They are great models of how to make an impact on our program and the national landscape, in and out of the pool.”

A Rochester, Minnesota, native, JP Becker was awarded the program’s 2019-20 Golden Dumbbell award for men’s swimming, which recognizes an individual who demonstrated unmatched effort, continuous improvement and enthusiasm in the weight room for the betterment of himself and the team. Becker is pursuing a degree in Science-Business and specializes in backstroke, breaststroke and individual medley. 

Will Cumberland is a three-time ACC finalist, and has competed at the conference championships all three seasons for the Irish. An individual medley and backstroke specialist, Cumberland holds four program Top 10 times (100 back, 200 back, 200 IM and 400 IM). The senior from Bristow, Virginia, is pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering and was named to the university’s Dean’s List in the Fall of 2017. 

Rounding out the men’s captains, freestyle specialist Sadler McKeen made his mark in the 2019-20 season with ACC-finalist and NCAA-qualifying performances. McKeen holds five individual program Top-10 times (200 Free, 500 Free, 1000 Free, 1650 Free and 200 Back), and his contribution to the 800 Free Relay at the 2020 ACC Championships resulted in a program record (6:16.86) and NCAA automatic A-cut qualifier. A 2020 CSCAA All-American, McKeen is from Birmingham, Alabama, and is pursuing a degree in Finance. 

On the women’s side, Lindsay Stone is the program record-holder in the 500 Freestyle, 1000 Freestyle and 1650 Freestyle. A two-time NCAA Championships qualifier, Stone competed in multiple years at the ACC Championships, and as a freshman, was one of three recipients of the Beeler-Hipp Award, presented to a freshman who best exemplifies the vitality, competitiveness, and love for Notre Dame shown by late student-athletes Meghan Beeler and Colleen Hipp. Stone hails from Rochester, New York, and is en route to earning a degree in Marketing, making the Dean’s List in Fall 2017, Spring 2018 and Spring 2019. 

Kelly Straub made her mark on the conference and national landscape this season, helping lead the women’s divers to the highest point total among all ACC squads at the 2020 conference championships. Named the program’s 2020 women’s diving Most Valuable Performer, Straub was named a 2020 CSCAA All-American in all three diving events (1-meter, 3-meter and Platform) and to the 2020 All-ACC Academic Team. Straub is a Science Pre-Professional major and hails from Omaha, Nebraska. 

The final of the three women’s captains, Rachel Wittmer specializes in freestyle, butterfly and individual medley. A multi-season competitor at the ACC Championships, Wittmer holds a program Top-10 time in the 100 Fly. She hails from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is working towards a degree in Business Analytics. Wittmer has been named to the Dean’s List twice (Fall 2017 and Spring 2018).