Old Town’s Shanley heading to juggernaut Kenyon College

Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, isn’t a popular post-high school destination for Maine’s high school student-athletes, but it is for any high school swimmers who aspire to intercollegiate competition.

The Lords have won 27 straight NCAA Division III national championships, a run that is unparalleled in collegiate athletics history.

Next year, Old Town’s Jacob Shanley will be a part of it all.

Shanley is headed to Kenyon next fall, where the former Coyotes standout will compete for Jim Steen, who has guided the men’s and women’s teams to a combined 43 national titles, more than any coach in any NCAA sport.

But it was another Kenyon coach who first grabbed Shanley’s attention.

Former Orono High star Kate Kovenock, who went on to an All-American career at Div. III Connecticut College, now serves as an assistant at Kenyon.

Both Kovenock and Shanley swam for the Canoe City Swim Club of the Old Town-Orono YMCA.

“I just looked her up and we started talking,” he said.

Although Shanley is eager to continue swimming – he’d love to part a part of a 28th men’s national title, he said – one of the big draws is that by competing at the Division III level he’ll have time to keep up with his other interests, namely the alto saxophone.

“What I wanted to do in college was be able to swim and play my sax,” he said. “In Division I a lot of times all you do is swim and I wouldn’t have time for the saxophone. At Kenyon, they have people on their swim team who are like first trumpet in the band. So I can do both.”

Shanley, a member of Old Town High’s jazz ensemble, was recently named an outstanding soloist at the Musicfest Orlando Jazz Festival in Florida and the ensemble won first place. He was also won outstanding soloist at the state jazz festival at Nokomis High in Newport.

He’s racked up plenty of swimming honors, too. Shanley was named a Penobscot Valley Conference all-star and helped Old Town to a second-place finish at the Class B state championships last winter. He won the 100-yard backstroke in a time of 54.94 seconds, swam on the winning 200 medley relay, and placed second in the 200 individual medley.

Once he gets to Kenyon, Shanley knows finding success in collegiate swimming will require a lot of dedication. His top times from high school and club swimming are in the lower half of most of the Kenyon team, with the exception of his backstroke time.

“And even that’s fourth or fifth [best on the team],” he said. “So I have a lot of work to do.”

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.